Has a bp ever killed or severely injured any person newborn to 100 years old.

[bradthebanker]

I just got into the ball python hobby and currently own 3 2 juveniles and 1 adult. I love them dearly and are wonder pets and none of them have showed me ANY aggression whatsoever even my 5 year old son is wanting a albino for himself ( with my supervision of course) my only problem is that my whole family can't understand why I have them and think I'm completely insane for keeping them. My sister thinks I'm a unfit father for having them cause she says one of them can curl around his neck in the middle of the night and kill him. An nothing I do can confidence her that they are good pets. What I wanna know is that has anyone young to old ever been hurt or killed by a ball python so I can ease my family's mind that they are completely safe.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Don]

I know of no incident where a ball python has killed or seriously injured a person. They can bite or strike and though it really does not hurt that much, can bleed a lot at the bite site.

[The Serpent Merchant]

There are no recorded incidents of a ball python killing a human of any age.

For constrictor snakes in general (this includs the giants like burms and retics)

[3skulls]

Would they see you as unfit if you got a dog?

[satomi325]

I can't recall a serious incident either. These snakes are not large constrictors. Most max out at 5 feet or less. The max size prey a ball can probably kill is a large rat size equivalent. I've been bitten a few times but they were not out of aggression. The snake was being defensive when I accidentally startled it. The bite didn't hurt. Felt less painful than a pin prick from the doctor.

All you can do is educate your family and show them that the snakes are in a secure enclosure. There's a reason why Ball Pythons are a beginner pet due to their docile nature. The bad stories you hear about a snake killing a child are usually larger species that escaped an ill suited enclosure that wasn't secure. For example, adult boas or burms kept in screen top tanks. And even those incidents are very rare. I hate to use this example, but family dogs kill ~20+ children a year on average. The point I'm trying to make is that people underestimate some animals and overestimate others....(Aaron beat me with this example!)

Good luck.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[OctagonGecko729]

Would they see you as unfit if you happened to have your kid in the car with you while you were driving? I don't have statistics on hand but I think its safe to assume that you have at least 1000x the chance of killing your son in a car accident then by owning a snake.....

[3skulls]

There are no recorded incidents of a ball python killing a human of any age.

For constrictor snakes in general (this includs the giants like burms and retics)

What about Pitbulls? I thought they had some restrictions.

[The Serpent Merchant]

What about Pitbulls? I thought they had some restrictions.

There aren't any state wide or national regulations (at least not yet/that I am aware of) most pit bull regulations are at the county or city level.

[3skulls]

I thought Ohio and FL had something.

That's a cool poster, that's for posting it.

[TheSnakeGuy]

Definitely gonna use some of these facts with my family and customers at my PetsMart that look at the baby Ball Pythons like they're gonna jump through the glass and kill them. I still don't get why people are afraid. It really bugs me. What conditioned them to fear snakes? If anything at all, I received no such conditioning.