Can We Talk About These Events?

[KingWheatley]

https://youtu.be/jZfinxNxm2I

A beautiful Burmese python strangles a child to death, and gets stabbed.

The only thing I could think of was... this owner wasn't licensed.

Every time there is a story like this, it's usually followed with info like "unlicensed owner," or "kept in a bathtub," or something along those lines.

Pythons are all picky eaters, aren't they? But even I'd eat carrots if I was starving... despite my allergy to them/something in them.

So I theorized that an unskilled owner starved their burm and it found a potential source of food....

I don't know... if a constrictor is large enough, does it start viewing anything small enough to swallow as a prey item?

[voodoolamb]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-daughter.html

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2011/...friend_jar.php

http://abcnews.go.com/US/python-owne...ry?id=14373295

^ News stories about the incident in the YouTube video ^

The "adults" (and i use that term loosely) in this case had a history with DCF (who were aware of the python), drugs, and the snake's owner had 6 previous felony convictions.

And yeah, was a really crappy snake keeper to boot.

The licensing thing doesn't bother me - because licensing can't stop stupid.

Very sad tragedy. That poor little girl. Every few years a story pops up about a python killing children. The most recent one I remember on the news was the rock python who killed two boys 5 and 7.

Always so very sad.

Whether humans are considered prey by appropriate sized constrictors has been disputed by herpatologists forever. Mostly on account of our broad shoulders being problemstic for snakes to swallow. Anywho I've always been interested in "Man eaters". Read Jim Corbett's books as a kid and have since spent hundreds of hours reading accounts of them, mostly big cats, crocs and wolves, but there are several accounts from rural villages of anacondas, retics, and rock pythons preying on children and rarely even adults.

Here's an interesting read on the subject concerning retics:
http://m.pnas.org/content/108/52/E1470.full

[Reinz]

I read all of the news stories presented. As a father I had a dozen different emotions flowing through me as I was struggling to finish the stories. It's so hard to comprehend the lack of care for the child and snake. Being a stoner is no excuse either.

Just a pure, senseless tragedy.

I have always had a passion for the Big Cats. When I got to play with a "tame" Mountain Lion as a teen I was even more enamored (sp). As a newlywed I came upon an opportunity to purchase a Mountain Lion. I did live on a ranch at the time. I don't think that I had ever desired something as much in my whole life, including the present. But I knew that we were planning a family in a few years. I passed on the Cat. There was just no way that I would take that gamble with my children, even with a remote chance of danger.

[AbsoluteApril]

Ohhh the Darnells... okay yeah this happened in 2011. A lot of us in the community don't believe the snake actually did the damage but was used as a scapegoat by the parents. (especially if you look at the size/weight of the python vs the child)*

I found these three threads here on BP.net about this incident:
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...hlight=darnell
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...hlight=darnell
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...hlight=darnell
There was a pretty in depth discussion on fauna at that time, here: http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=137947

*it is possible for a very large retic/anaconda/burm to kill a small child as a food item but it's highly unlikely and only really heard about in their native range but I've still never found real proof besides a few stories told by a village to a herp show host. The majority of deaths in the US from large constrictors are human error (being alone (lots of times in the stories, drunk) and having a large constrictor around your shoulders/neck - it clings on and accidentally kills the owner)