Sad News

First I am very sad that a child has lost their life due to poor choices from adults.

But as I read the different stories posted on this thread they all seem to state the owner of the snake was the boyfriend, not the father of the child. So I don't understand why the mother of this child before even living with this guy didn't make sure the snake(s) were secured in the proper way. (And if she didn't know what the proper way was do research of her own to find out) Then, after it escaped the first time didn't remove the child from the home until it was secured properly.
Actually I guess it shouldn't surprise me since so many children are killed/hurt by their own parents all the time. But still, I hope both the mother and the boyfriend as owner of the snake are charged and put in jail for this. Because of their neglect an innocent child is dead.

As for the snake I hope it recovers from it's stab wounds and is placed with a responsible owner. One who will take care of it and protect it the proper way.

dont you love when people who dont own, like,or even see snakes act like they know more than you. today i was out and my father was like did you hear about that little girl. i said yes that is very sad and he said does that scare you since you have a kid on the way and i said no. my snakes cant kill a person ( all i have are balls) i added they dont get that big and he said bull they will get like 15 foot long, i just started laughing, and brought him to my home to show him our 3000 gram girls and explained that they dont get to much bigger than that. i just thought it was funny how quick he questioned my judgement considering he hates snakes and i have raised them for over 7 years.

that just seems to be the norm. the less someone knows, the more they are willing to tell you how wrong you are.

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Originally Posted by Ben Biscy

that just seems to be the norm. the less someone knows, the more they are willing to tell you how wrong you are.

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oh i know i have seen it all i have had people run from me screaming. i even had a woman walk up to my wife and tell her that she is sickening. i even had one guy act like he was going to hit me lol and we were not doing anything. but hey thats just how some people are.

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Originally Posted by wilomn

Unless one of you was there then there is NO actual knowledge of how the snake was kept, what it was kept in, the condition of the parents (sober or what) or if waking up at 10 was the norm.

Maybe he worked nights. Maybe he left the cage open. Maybe someone else left the cage open. Maybe it was a poorly built cage. Maybe the kid opened it.

Jumping to conclusions is very easy. Jumping to conclusions is also a good way to be wrong.

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I agree it's wrong to judge without all the details, but I'll go back to part of the comment you're replying to - regardless of the family's schedule, why is a 2 year-old awake and "loose" without supervision? Forget the snake, why isn't anyone watching the kid? My niece is almost 2 years old, and if she's sleeping her bedroom door is securely closed... and when she wakes up, so does my sister or brother-in-law. Just sayin'.

No matter what the details are, my heart goes out to the little girl's family... what a horrible tragedy. :(

Snakes, guns, whatever, etc...

...it had better be locked up like fort knox, or its the parents fault and they should be charged with a crime.

BrandonsBalls

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Originally Posted by dmaricle

dont you love when people who dont own, like,or even see snakes act like they know more than you. today i was out and my father was like did you hear about that little girl. i said yes that is very sad and he said does that scare you since you have a kid on the way and i said no. my snakes cant kill a person ( all i have are balls) i added they dont get that big and he said bull they will get like 15 foot long, i just started laughing, and brought him to my home to show him our 3000 gram girls and explained that they dont get to much bigger than that. i just thought it was funny how quick he questioned my judgement considering he hates snakes and i have raised them for over 7 years.

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I think its easy to under estimate a 3000/4000G ball, which I think could kill and infant or toddler, given the circumstances that would allow for such a tragedy.

My parents are so scared of snakes that they know I have ONE ball python and it freaks them out. I don't think I could ever tell them I have several, let alone the boa constrictors, especially with us having our third baby here any day now. I have tried to educate them on snakes but they wont listen, but then again they deal with rattle snakes out on their property all the time and I am sure that has a lot to do with it.

According to one news report, they guy said it "got in the baby's crib" so if the baby was in the crib, the baby wasn't wandering around. But also... in antoher news report he said he found the child missing, and went looking for her and found her and the snake.
If the snake got loose... went however far it was to the crib, and climbed into the crib to kill the child.. then the parents were not supposed to be supervising the child, they were all still sleeping in bed(10 am or not, lots of people sleep in later than those of us that have to get up at 7am etc).

I tend to think that something is fishy, since I can't imagine even a hungry burm going TO a crib to climb in and attempt to kill/eat a 2 year old. Perhaps the father misspoke in the heat of the moment, saying one thing, and meaning another, after all, his daughter was dead.

I'm still astounded at the double standard of the general public. "See? You shouldn't be allowed to keep those snakes!" and I point out that dogs have killed as many people in a single year, so are they going to insist no one should own dogs... and they just shake their heads in disgust, as if *I* am missing some point. Am I missing a LEGITIMATE point? I don't think so. I think it's just the ingrained distrust of reptiles, creating that double standard.

At least the celebrity deaths have overshadowed this incident, perhaps it will fade before it gets too much attention.

I think it is a case of neglect and the owners of the snake/parents of the child should be punished by law. My sympathy goes out to them for their child being killed, but THE SNAKE GOT OUT OF ITS ENCLOSURE BEFORE. It was stated in the article that the snake had even gotten out earlier that morning.
Jumping to conclusions is easy to do in this case. GOD forbid this is a cover up of some kind of child abuse. I see neglect as a form of abuse!
I see permits and regulations(lockable enclosures, etc) in the future. At least for anything over six feet(IMO). Hopefully this doesn't effect the keeping of harmless reptiles including ball pythons.