Author Topic: It must be the week of STUPID people when it comes to animals but this was too  (Read 3618 times)

Offline MagicM3

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OK here goes

Jan. 23, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Mother saves young son after stabbing slippery snake

By LAWRENCE MOWER
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
 
Las Vegas police officers carry a python, which measured nearly 18 feet long, out of a southwest valley apartment after it attacked a 3-year-old-boy Tuesday morning. The snake was later euthanized.
Photo courtesy of KVBC-TV, Channel 3


 
Police officers display the female tiger reticulated python that almost strangled a toddler in a southwest valley apartment.
Photo courtesy of KVBC-TV, Channel 3


A 3-year-old boy who earlier this week was bitten and squeezed to the point of unconsciousnes s by a snake nearly 18 feet long was doing fine Thursday.

The boy's grandmother said that her toddler grandson, after spending Tuesday night in the hospital and taking two doses of antibiotics, is "doing great."

The grandmother, who gave her first name as Patty and declined to give her last name, said her grandson entered the master bedroom of the family's southwest valley apartment just after President Barack Obama's televised inaugural address and hit the snake in the head with the door.

The female tiger reticulated python had escaped from its cage, and the bedroom door was supposed to have been locked, she said.

"She wasn't trying to hurt him," the grandmother said of the snake. "She was just startled. She just instinctively, as a snake would do, coiled him."

The child's 25-year-old mother then grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the snake 17 times, she said. The snake let go of the boy, who was unconscious, and his mother began performing CPR while the snake started coiling around her.

She revived her son and escaped the snake's grip.

"I'm so proud of my daughter," she said. "Her mother instincts kicked in."

Las Vegas police, who responded to the incident and carried the snake out of the apartment, declined to comment on the case Thursday, citing an ongoing investigation by the department's abuse and neglect detail.

The grandmother said the snake belonged to a strip club operator. Her daughter's family was taking care of the snake while the strip club was being renovated.

The family owns several snakes, according to the grandmother, although none nearly as large as the python that coiled around the toddler.

"The snake was a good snake," she said. "Snakes, especially ones like this that are bred in captivity, they don't have that hunting instinct that a wild one would."

The python was taken to Lied Animal Shelter and euthanized because of its deep wounds, according to Jim Seitz, the shelter's co-director of operations.

The family's other snakes, which were seized by animal control officials, are also being housed at Lied, Seitz said.

"We've gotten four or five calls already from people wanting to adopt them," Seitz said.

The grandmother said her daughter does not want the snakes back.

"It's a very traumatic situation," she said. "She feels horrible that it happened, that there was even a chance that it could happen."

The toddler also had a few bite marks from the snake on his chest, but none deep enough to require stitches, the grandmother said.

Offline kathryn

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First off:  Are you freaking kidding me?!?

Snakes born in captivity don't have the hunting instincts?  Where did she get that INSANE idea? 

Sorry but these are the people who shouldn't own a pet rock
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Offline ZooCrew

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yeah this same story was in my reptile forum (although a slightly different version)
Stupid people.
For one, how can you not know how it got out??!  i hope you figure it out so it doesn't happen again!

And secondly, you didn't post the photos (they were posted on the reptile forum), but I found it a bit sick that the officers (about 5 or 6 of them) posed with the dying snake after it was captured, like it was some kind of trophy.  >:(

lorim2

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Ya these kind of ppl really make me mad!! First off...Retics are by general rule, an aggressive snake.  Why in the heck would you have an 18 ft retic anyway...ok... if your a herp person..yes stripper...NO. ..Idiots.  I am glad I didnt see the stupid stupid police posing with their trophy kill...ugh

Offline BritnyLe

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Wow people these days are unbelievable. I love snakes. The bigger the better. But having a snake that size requires a lot of responsibility . I myself currently only have three snakes and none of them are huge, but I used to have a female burmese python, and a female green anaconda.

I have alot of experience dealing with large snakes and would still never get a retic. Retics are known for being moody and tempermental but that isn't the point. These people made 3 major mistakes.

1. The guy should never have let an a woman with a young child watch this kind of snake just to be safe.

2. The woman shouldn't have accepted to take this snake into her home with her son living there. Like I said above I had a burmese python and a green anaconda. HAD because of the fact that I found out I was pregnant. Snake have instincts and though my male anaconda was fine to handle and was friendly, she was still almost 20 feet and I couldn't risk something happening. Also I got rid of my female burmese, though she was still young and small, she had an additude and I again won't risk my child.

3. How did it "manage" to escape? A snake that size should have a locked inclosure. All my snakes, even my ball pythons, have combination padlocks on their cages and they can't break the glass. I would have never had my anaconda in an unlocked inclosure its just a bad idea.

It's a shame when things like this happen. I hate seeing an animal get put to sleep for something that's in its nature to do.

There arent stupid animals just stupid people.
Hades: 2 year old, Saint Bernard/Great Dane/English Mastiff mix
Jypsi: 8 week old Cocker Spaniel/Australian Cattle Dog mix
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A ball python
Otis the rabbit

Offline ZooCrew

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BritnyLe...... .....the snake wasn't put down b/c it went after the boy.  It was put down b/c of the injuries it sustained when the mom stabbed it multiple times to get it to release the boy.

I think if the snake could have been saved, they would have at least tried.

Offline BritnyLe

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BritnyLe...........the snake wasn't put down b/c it went after the boy.  It was put down b/c of the injuries it sustained when the mom stabbed it multiple times to get it to release the boy.

I think if the snake could have been saved, they would have at least tried.

Ok that's good to know. I thought they put it down like they do with dogs that bite.
Hades: 2 year old, Saint Bernard/Great Dane/English Mastiff mix
Jypsi: 8 week old Cocker Spaniel/Australian Cattle Dog mix
Kane aka Poe, Kira, Karma, Kalypso, and Krystal my kitty kids
A ball python
Otis the rabbit