I am here to stay

[Running Elk]

Ugh. I was reading up about this a minute ago, and I came across the HSUS' site. One of their reasonings to support this ban is that "a dozen people have been killed by large pythons in North America in the last decade."

There are probably a dozen pitbull killings/maulings a week in my state alone, and I still don't support breed specific legislation...

I understand that their argument is not one of logic, but of persuasiveness to support a further agenda. It just bothers me.

[bcr229]

Ugh. I was reading up about this a minute ago, and I came across the HSUS' site. One of their reasonings to support this ban is that "a dozen people have been killed by large pythons in North America in the last decade."

There are probably a dozen pitbull killings/maulings a week in my state alone, and I still don't support breed specific legislation...

I understand that their argument is not one of logic, but of persuasiveness to support a further agenda. It just bothers me.

It also flies in the face of what our own government reports. Also, I find the last sentence rather amusing, the same argument can be made for every potential risk from, say, dying in a car wreck while commuting to work, to dying of a potential allergic reaction from eating shellfish.
http://www.usgs.gov/faq/node/3268

Are large constrictor snakes such as Burmese pythons able to kill people? What is the risk? Would this be in the wild too, or in backyards?Human fatalities from non-venomous snakes are very rare, probably only a few per year worldwide. All known constrictor-snake fatalities in the United States are from captive snakes; these are split between deaths of snake owners who were purposefully interacting with their pet and deaths of small children or infants in homes where a snake was kept captive as a pet. There have been no human deaths from wild-living Burmese pythons in Florida. Overall, the risk of attack is very low, but would likely be greatest in natural habitats (the wild).

However, we cannot categorically rule out the possibility of an attack in agricultural or suburban areas. Because many suburban areas and even backyards, neighborhoods, and parks in Florida include ponds, canals, or other bodies of water where large snakes could feel at home, the situation is likely similar to that experienced with alligators: attacks are improbable but possible in any locality where the animals and people are present. The simplest and most sure-fire way to reduce the risk of human fatalities is to avoid interacting with a large constrictor.