News: 2 die in rock python attack

This is really sad.

I still don't believe it. Bite marks prove nothing to me. I want to see if the autopsy reveals that the boys show signs of death from the snake constricting them.

What is to say it was not a homicide and the killer pried the snakes mouth open to place bite marks on the boys implicating the snake as the killer? It is also a far fetched conclusion but now a days anything is possible.

I want to hear from the third boy....He heard nothing? I don't believe it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hig

Everyone vote! No account required.

http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/community/poll-results

---

71% voting yes.... :mad::mad::mad::mad:

Snakes in the province this occurred are only allowed to be those that get to a maximum of 3 metres. This was a 4.5 metre snake, so it was already illegal (unsure the owner may have had an exemption allowing him to keep it).
So, clearly, a "ban" would not have even prevented this single tragedy(unless they figure out a way to ban "stupid" effectively).

I cannot imagine keeping any snake of this size in a building with small children and not having the animal in a locking cage, in a lockable room. We can tell kids to not do some things but, that can just make it more attractive to some of them.
Then, if I have an escapee of this size, having more children over would not even enter my mind, the wife and kids would be at a hotel until either the animal or its' corpse was recovered.

There is already talk of an outright ban on all pythons (the tree-hugging ci-diots from groups along the lines of PETA are asking for an "all exotics ban", bye-bye to your gerbil junior) because you know those balls, woma's, children's and GTP are sooooo lethal even in the care of a moron(ignore the sarcasm if you are a mouse, rat or, ASF).
If it comes to pass we will spend millions on a stupid law that still won't fix stupidity and has only claimed 2 lives that I am aware of in my 40+ years, ignoring stuff like educating kids about water safety with that same money potentially saving easily 10,000 times as many young lives for the same cost over the same period.

That the owner was in the business just ticks me off even more. This should be a no-brainer, being responsible and teaching responsibility ensures his livelihood, this..... well this just messes up every single one of his potential responsible customers.

/rant off

I may have to run that through "Talking Tom" and play it back until I cool down.

i voted, and i will keep voting every 24 hours until the poll closes.

(i have a variable IP adress that changes at least every 24 hours and the provider has a pool of tens of millions of IP adresses. Really. Pollsters from the USA often forget that.)


Also, i made a thread redirecting to this thread in General BPs, specifically about the impact it has on BPs, and mirrored the poll over there because it clearly would hit ball pythons.

Should the City of Ottawa ban all exotic snakes? Yes or No, poll open.

ottawa.ctvnews.ca/community/poll-results

VOTE. (currently: 71% for 29% against at 1533 votes)

one other thing: to better coordinate our response, and our anger and grief, maybe some temporary changes to the website could make sense. Like a banner redirecting to a page that links to the different threads about this and that contains some information. Maybe the forum section this thread is in needs a more prominent place, its currently a sub-forum not visible unless you click on "General Herp" first. Maybe this incident temporarily deserves its own subsection directly in "Site General". I dont know what exactly, a banner would make sense, but i think the structure of this forum can maybe help in focusing energy and providing structure for our response.

It;s gone down a little, it was 73% when I voted. Amazing how ignorant the general public is when it comes to herping.

S

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mephibosheth1

Sounds like it is confirmed then that it is the snake that killed the kids then??

Correlation does not imply causation. The presence of bite marks is not conclusive enough IMHO to determine if the snake actually did kill the kids.

---

If I felt like it, I could go out right now, open a couple houses with hungry girls in them and get myself some really impressive bites.

Or, I could pull out a gentle, cowardly BP and pry his mouth open, guaranteeing a few accidental snags.

Then again, I could pry open a Boa's mouth and approximate "milking it", using my hand instead of a collection cup.

None of the above would constitute a real attack...but they'd look pretty good/bad.

This still just reeks.

I 'smell like animals' 24/7 by merit of having my dogs lounging over me all the time.

None of my snakes has ever mistaken me for supper.

So here is my question. .if they put an outright ban on exotics, what does that mean? Are those of us with snakes already grandfathered in for those snakes or do they just expect us to gather our babies up and deliver them to a location for a mass killing???

This is the worst thing to happen to the reptile hobby since the burm killed the little girl.
In fact, this is much worse.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by norwegn113

So here is my question. .if they put an outright ban on exotics, what does that mean? Are those of us with snakes already grandfathered in for those snakes or do they just expect us to gather our babies up and deliver them to a location for a mass killing???

---

right now its just a media poll that is still open, and it asks for a ban of all exotic snakes in Ottawa.


But now stuff like this could happen for real. And then it could mean anything. Worst case would be that there comes a law, and before the law goes into effect all snakes affected by it have to be evacuated outside of the area of influence of the law before it goes into effect. And when the law goes into effect all animals affected by the law in that jurisdiction turn illegal and/or get rounded up and euthanized. Maybe they even put some punishment on possession.

Really, it could be anything, in the USA some species can no longer be moved across state lines and are outlawed in some states, and it means breeders stop breeding them because they cannot move the snakes to potential customers.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion...159/story.html
Get there like I did! Like my little "essay" at the bottom of the comment section too. ;)