Everything that I've read contradicts what I'm about to relay that was told to my wife.

She was in our college Life Sciences building, of which they keep several kinds of venomous snakes native to Oklahoma. She ended up talking to a "zoology major" (guy sounds like he was bright as bricks) and referenced my want of a ball python. He proceeded to tell her that he is the owner of a 9 foot long butter ball python?

9 foot? Uhm...