18 foot snake attacks child in Las Vegas

18 foot snake attacks child in Las Vegas

18 foot snake attacks child in Las Vegas

Posted: Jan 21, 2009 11:49 PM

A three-year-old boy and his mother are recovering from an attack by an eighteen foot snake in Las Vegas.

The family was taking care of the snake for some friends who were remodeling their business, where it is normally an attraction.

They are calling the attack a freak accident, because they do not know how the snake got loose.

Authorites agree, and credit the mom's quick thinking for stopping that accident from being a lot worse. Read more about the family's account of what happened by clicking here.

"It took all six of us to get that snake into custody. It made just a little loop on my hand while we were wrestling with it, and it felt like a vice. I've never felt anything like that," says Metro Sergeant, Steve Custer.

Custer and officer, Jerry Ybarra, have almost half a century of law enforcement experience between them, but even that could not prepare them for the snake attack they rushed to Tuesday.

"We go into bars after bad guys all the time, guns, never blink an eye, but we looked at that snake, and there was a lot of dancing and screaming going on," says Custer.

"Once animal control got there, we'd try to grasp him with her little tool that she has, and he would just hiss at us, and that was pretty terrifying," adds Ybarra.

The Reticulated Python was about eighteen feet long, far bigger than the three-year-old boy it had wrapped itself around.

But, maternal instinct proved to be far stronger than eighteen feet of muscle.

"The mom said that he was initially crying, then she came out and went for the knife. At one point, he did stop crying and was turning blue. Then, she was able to get the baby away from the snake," says Ybarra.

The knife wounds were so severe, the snake had had to be euthanized at Lied Animal Shelter, where the family's five other, much smaller, snakes were taken.

Fortunately, though, mother and child will be just fine.

"This was definitely a first for me," says Ybarra.

"I've seen and done some amazing things in my 36 years of being here, never come across this, ever," adds Custer.

Large snakes are allowed to be kept privately in Clark County, as long as they are not poisonous.

Metro says that no laws were broken, and that the attack can be likened to any other by a family pet, like a dog, for example.

And there goes another nail in the coffin.

I'm glad to see that at least they are likening it to a dog attack so that people don't go up in arms about this. I am still in awe of anyone that keeps these though, I can't imagine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by grammie

I'm glad to see that at least they are likening it to a dog attack so that people don't go up in arms about this. I am still in awe of anyone that keeps these though, I can't imagine.

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That is assuming they take the time to read the whole article. For a lot of people though, all they are going to see is a big snake almost killed a little kid.

http://www.ktnv.com/global/story.asp?s=9713225
A three-year-old boy and his mother are recovering from an attack by an eighteen foot snake in Las Vegas.

The family was taking care of the snake for some friends who were remodeling their business, where it is normally an attraction.

They are calling the attack a freak accident, because they do not know how the snake got loose.

Authorites agree, and credit the mom's quick thinking for stopping that accident from being a lot worse....



They seemed to leave out a lot of details.
Like how it escaped

Merged both threads :gj:

at least the story didnt depict anything too "wow" like...
like if they were acting like all snakes can kill you and blah blah blah...
its alot better than most stories ive heard. and yet again, another stupid person...

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Originally Posted by brainman1000

Large snakes are allowed to be kept privately in Clark County, as long as they are not poisonous.

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thats cool, atleast they are allowed to have venomous :rolleyes:

I was watching the video of the reticulated python attack, and couldn't help but notice the story title image next to the news-caster...

Underlying the text that says "Python Attacks" is a picture of a ball python, which naturally, some idiot at the station most likely ripped off from Google images and just ran with it...

http://projectpython.com/stuff/ball_python_attack.jpg

BrandonsBalls

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BrandonsBalls

I was watching the video of the reticulated python attack, and couldn't help but notice the story title image next to the news-caster...

Underlying the text that says "Python Attacks" is a picture of a ball python, which naturally, some idiot at the station most likely ripped off from Google images and just ran with it...

http://projectpython.com/stuff/ball_python_attack.jpg

BrandonsBalls

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I saw it on the news last night and laughed.