Irrwsponsible snake keepers

So I was volunteering at my mom's preschool (non profit) and I was talking to some of the teachers. They know I have snakes. One of them told me a story that made pissed as hell. A child would come to the center everyday COVERED in bruises. Legs, arms and the torso. They found out the stupid parents let the child "play" with the family pet: a large python. And the python would constrict sometimes and oeave very dark bruises on the kid! And even worse the dad would forget to LOCK the cage and the snake would get out and almost killed their 3 year old kid. Cps was called and they gave the snake away to an uncle. How can ANYONE allow their child to play with a large python basically unsupervised? And they seriously thought nothing of the bruises. When the teachers confronted them they said it "wasn't a big deal." I'm just incredibly upset. No wonder random people think snakes are dangerous. It takes one idiot to ruin it all doesn't it? Sorry for the rant but it was just so difficult to sit there and listen to that story.

Of course I then stated all animals were dangerous without proper supervision and care ect.

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Oh gosh that is terrible!! Even with our smaller ball pythons, our kids are never allowed to handle them unsupervised. It just makes me so sad and sick that parents could be so irresponsible. And you're right, it DOES make snakes look bad, and snake keepers as well. :( I hope those children are in a better situation now.

I can't believe that.. How could parents allow that to happen? Im glad the snake wasn't slaughtered as long as it is now kept safely and hope those children are in a safer place now.

The kid is still with mom and dad. But I dont think they're allowed to have snakes in their home anymore. It's so frustrating to know there are people like that with kids! Bless the little kid's heart though. She said the snake was her friend even after all that...

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Grrrrr!!!! :mad:

It's people like that who make others respond "Are you trying to kill your child?!" when they hear a parent is getting a python. Yes... that actually happened to me. I looked at them incredulously because I could not understand what they meant. However... I'm a responsible person who keeps my child away from the animals they shouldn't play with (snakes, rats, tortoise...), and supervises time with the animals they can play with (cats, dogs...). Besides the fact the python I was getting at the time was going to be a baby ball python and very unlikely to kill my child!

is it possible not all the bruises were from the python?.. just sayin

I'd be interested in knowing if the kid is still ending up with bruises now that the snake is gone.

The child doesn't have any more bruises. The teachers said you can almost clearly see bands of bruises and the parents even admitted that it was from the snake and it was just them "playing". Very devastating for the herp community. The parents seriously believed it wasn't that great of an issue.

This is highly suspicious. I have never, in all the years I've been working with kids and snakes, seen a snake bruise anyone, kid or adult. My first thought was someone is hurting the kid and blaming it on the snake. The force necessary to bruise would most likely cause asphyxiation on a child. The physics just don't ad up to me.

I agree with wilomn, something is up.

At one of the shows I went to, I had the pleasure of handling a young, about 4 foot, RTB. It was understandably stressed out and coiled around my arm at about the elbow hard enough that I started losing feeling in my arm. I'm the type of person that I'll find random bruises without knowing where they came from.

I didn't earn a single bruise from the snake.

I'm with wilomn as well - something more is up with that poor child's situation. I grew up with an adult boa as a pet (age 4 on). The only bruise I ever got was from one mistaken feeding strike (boy, did that hurt!), and I and my friends handled that snake daily.

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Originally Posted by Raptor

I agree with wilomn, something is up.

At one of the shows I went to, I had the pleasure of handling a young, about 4 foot, RTB. It was understandably stressed out and coiled around my arm at about the elbow hard enough that I started losing feeling in my arm. I'm the type of person that I'll find random bruises without knowing where they came from.

I didn't earn a single bruise from the snake.

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From how they described the snake I'm sure it was a burmese. I'm pretty confident a burmese won't have trouble leaving bruises on a 3 year old. The final straw was when the snake apparently almost killed their kid or something.

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Something still sounds fishy here, if the snake was gripping then I can't see that leaving a bruise so I'm with the others posts on this one. I'm not sure if the snake was constricting as if it was a feeding response but then there would be a likely bite mark as well.

Unless the child is anemic, it's unlikely for anybody, including a child, to be bruised by a snake doing regular snake things, due to the surface area the snake covers. Bruises are generally a more acute impact. Not always, sure, but unless the child was coming in with his entire portions of his body bruised, or broken ribs, I'm not buying it.

We don't know what the deal is with the parents, obviously... but considering this is a story told to you by your mom, or your mom's teacher friend, about a child that came in at some unspecified time, I'm guessing you don't actually know if the child is still coming in with bruises, or whether the story was just somebody's embellishment to the hype surrounding a family's pet snake. Sure the bruises didn't look like an adult's hand gripped firmly around the child's arm or legs? Sides? Any bruises on the face, i'd be even more suspicious about the parents.

The manner in which snakes move, and hold onto branches, is unlikely to bruise a human during regular interaction, unless, as I stated, the child is anemic or has some other brusiing/bleeding disorder. I'm not saying it's impossible for them to bruise.. very large constrictors are obviously capable of much worse than bruises.. but I'd be surprised to see the types of bruises that would result, on a small child, and have that child still be alive, if in fact this were a murderous snake that strikes and bites and constricts as frequently as this child's bruises would suggest.

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Originally Posted by barbie.dragon

From how they described the snake I'm sure it was a burmese. I'm pretty confident a burmese won't have trouble leaving bruises on a 3 year old. The final straw was when the snake apparently almost killed their kid or something.

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A burmese leaving bruises would be doing much more damage than just bruises.