Roommate Makes a Choice Between the Rats and a Snake

[Ax01]

well this is just horrible. i wonder how long the owner had the Retic since it was a year old already or whether he just started to feed live that prompted the roommate's grisly action. she could have taken a different route but i think she must have had unfortunate mental health issues.

story: https://www.wral.com/cops-woman-kill...rats/17711101/

COPS: Woman Kills Roommate's Pet Snake -- After 'Bonding' With Its Feeder Rats

SACRAMENTO — An Elk Grove woman is facing a felony animal cruelty charge after allegedly killing her roommate's pet python.

She says she did it to save the feeder rats the snake was going to eat.

Elk Grove police arrested Heaven Richie after she called police herself, allegedly admitting to killing the animal.

The python's owner Michael Hall says he walked into his bedroom and found Richie stabbing the snake.

"She killed my snake," Hall said. "Scared me to death; I didn't know what to do."

Hall recently took pictures of his 1-year-old reticulated python, named Fangy.

Fangy was still small, but reticulated pythons grow to be the longest and largest snakes in the world.

Elk Grove police say Richie seemed full of remorse when she called the cops on herself.

"She felt guilty," Elk Grove police officer Jason Jimenez said. "And what she told our officers that were on scene, is that they had purchased some rats to feed the snake, she had developed a bond with the rats, and when it came time to feed the snake one of the rats, she was not going to do it."

"For us, this was a good example, of regardless of what kind of animal it is, that we're going to take these type of cases seriously and investigate them to the fullest of our ability," Jimenez said.

A roommate rift, over a pet python, and it's live pet food.

Now the snake is dead, and police say the alleged cold-blooded killer has confessed to the crime.

[Bogertophis]

How pathetic & sad....and yet another good reason to feed pre-killed/frozen-thawed rodents.

[Skyrivers]

So this lady is so stupid and crazy that she murders the poor snake for eating, calls the cops on herself, and scared her poor male roommate to death? Stupid to the core! I am happy the police arrested her and took it seriously! Next time she might get mad at her roommate for eating chicken, cow, or pig. Geez lady! WTF.

[Bogertophis]

Really scary, the "surprises" that show up with room-mates you don't know well before-hand.

[dboeren]

What the hell is wrong with some people. If you like those rats for whatever reason, fine, keep them as pets and buy your roommate some replacement rats. There were much better ways to deal with this situation.

I'm not sure whether the guy was going to live feed or pre-kill it and serve it still warm. Its' easy to criticize but sometimes snakes are picky eaters and you gotta do what you gotta do to get them eat while you gradually wean them onto what YOU want them to eat.

[tttaylorrr]

disgusting.

ANYONE who willingly harms or kills an animal that is not an immediate threat to your health or safety should raise a red flag. idc the situation outside of what i stated above, it is unacceptable. that person is disgusting and at least they had the mental capacity to recognize it.

this was such a sad, stupid story.

side story:
just started seeing a guy: he has his brother's two siblings cats because his brother sucks. they just got fleas. he made some under-the-breathe comment about hurting them (he said kill). i shut that sh*ot down right there. DONE. i do NOT tolerate that crap.

[Bogertophis]

i do NOT tolerate that crap.

Good! And it's never safe to ignore it either...most are just blowing off steam but you never know.

[JodanOrNoDan]

The lady is obviously an egg short of a dozen but...

I am sure this will go over like a lead balloon here, but there is no moral difference in my book between killing a rat or a snake. If anything the rat is more self aware than the snake is so...

If you are feeding rats, live, ft, whatever you have killed the rat.

The only difference I see is that at least the rat's life is not wasted, it is being used for food. The snake was killed and not eaten or used in another useful manner.

[tttaylorrr]

Good! And it's never safe to ignore it either...most are just blowing off steam but you never know.

not to derail: as a female in the online dating game, i can't NOT take those red flags seriously no matter how small. it sucks i have to take different precautions and attitudes about things, but i'm still here so i know my instincts are good.

i made sure to tell my friends about the convo, in case gosh-forbid something happens.

[C.Marie]

How sad, she better darn well be a vegan or her actions where not only cruel and malicious but aso hypocritical, I love pet rats when I see feeders my heart melts a little but the animal can no more live off tofu as we can live in a termite den in Africa so sad the beautiful babe gone too soon..