Pet Python Kills Dog in Florida

Tragedy in Florida as dog is squeezed to death

A very unfortunate incident has taken place in Florida in which a Python killed a neighboring Rat Terrier by squeezing the dog.

"I keep a picture of him in my wallet," said Wayne Vassello, one of the owners of the little dog whose name was Max. "We don't have kids," he said. "That was our child. We celebrated birthdays and holidays."

Unleashing his dog as they approached their apartment complex, the dog was suddently ambushed by the 4m long Python. Vassello managed to free the dog by beating the snake with a golf club, yet the dog ran off terrified and was found dead the next day.

"She's a very friendly snake, actually," said the Python's owner, who has to cough up $1300 to the couple of the dead dog.

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So both animals were not on a leash but the python guy had to pay?

What did the

dog die of if it was able to run off? Hmmmm? Probably blows from a golf club!

shrap said:

So both animals were not on a leash but the python guy had to pay?

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Well, the evil python was lying in wait and ambushed the poor helpless dog. That's what they do you know, vicious, souless creatures they are.

What I'd like to know is since when is a rat terrier worth $1,300?
Particularly touching was the part about carrying the photo of the dog in his wallet. Sort of like wearing the neck brace to court after the 3 mph bump at the stoplight.

Clay Davenport said:

Well, the evil python was lying in wait and ambushed the poor helpless dog. That's what they do you know, vicious, souless creatures they are.

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If the python was slithering around loose where anybody could get access to it, then the owner deserves to get fined a whole lot more than $1,300, IMO. Imagine "I suddenly heard my two-year old grandson scream" instead of "I suddenly heard my rat terrier yelp" and you'll get some idea of where I'm going here.

It's not the python's fault that it tried to eat a small, furry animal -- that's what python's do. But the owner IS at fault for not keeping a potentially dangerous animal under control. I love big pythons as much as anyone on here, but a 4m python is quite capable of killing someone. And if you don't realize that and don't take steps to keep children and small animals away from your pet, you're no better than the idiot who lets his ill-tempered Rottweiler terrorize the neighborhood.

Clay Davenport said:

the dog ran off terrified and was found dead the next day

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Yeah, this doesnt make sense to me. If the dog escaped, then how did the python "kill" it? Bleed to death from bite wounds? Fractured rib pierced the lung?

I'd like more info on how the pooch died.

I love my dog and I love my snakes.

When I visit my sister in Florida my dog is never more than a foot or two from me and on a leash when we are outside. And we stay away from bushes/cover.

Not because of snakes - but gators.

In the last five years they have had one fatality and one amputation from an alligator on her island.

The fatality was a man walking his dog.

Scott Ashton said:

The fatality was a man walking his dog.

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A gator killed the man or the dog?

Skunky said:

A gator killed the man or the dog?

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Both.

You're kidding me?! I've always associated crocs with being dangerous, but was led to believe (erroneously so?) that gators weren'y considered a genuine threat. A danger, but not grab-me-eat-me-up dangerous.

Skunky said:

You're kidding me?! I've always associated crocs with being dangerous, but was led to believe (erroneously so?) that gators weren'y considered a genuine threat. A danger, but not grab-me-eat-me-up dangerous.

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The dog owner tried to save the dog, otherwise I'm fairly confident he would have walked away unscathed.


The story as carried in the Miami Herald:

GATOR BITES OFF PART OF 81-YEAR-OLD MAN'S LEG IN FATAL ATTACK. An elderly man walking his dog by a canal lost part of a leg and died in an attack by an 11-foot alligator investigators believe first went after his dog, then turned on the man when he tried to protect his pet.

Robert Steele, 81, was rushed Tuesday to Healthpark Medical Center, where he was declared dead. His right leg below the knee was missing. "Why he got attacked, we're not sure, but he may have been protecting his dog,'' said Sanibel Police Cmdr. Bill Tomlinson. "I had no idea it was an alligator,'' his wife, Ellen Steele, said after the late afternoon incident by the couple's home on well-to-do Sanibel Island. "His legs were still in the water and there was no blood. We live among alligators. We protect them. They have never attacked us before.'' Ellen Steele, also 81, thought her husband was drowning in the canal when she heard him start screaming. She ran to him and pulled him as far up the canal's bank as she could before calling 911. Paramedics reported that by the time they arrived, though, Robert Steele had lost a lot of blood and was in cardiac arrest.

Less than an hour later, officers of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reached the scene with two alligator trappers. They quickly spotted the right alligator. "We saw it surface on the other bank with the leg in his mouth,'' said Tomlinson. "It was pretty skittish because it had what it wanted.'' Wildlife Officer JoAnne Adams then shot the alligator in the head, and officers dragged it ashore.

Steele was the thirteenth person killed in a Florida alligator attack in the last 50 years, including a 71-year-old Sarasota man killed in May and a 2-year-old girl killed the following month. — The Miami Herald and wire service sources, submitted by Phil Hall, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA

Crazy.

Rakshasanyc said:

If the python was slithering around loose where anybody could get access to it, then the owner deserves to get fined a whole lot more than $1,300, IMO. Imagine "I suddenly heard my two-year old grandson scream" instead of "I suddenly heard my rat terrier yelp" and you'll get some idea of where I'm going here.

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Oh I agree with that. It was irresponsible to have that snake in public like that. It was also technically irresponsible to have taken the dog off the leash, but you don't exactly expect a large python to be there when you are taking the last steps toward your home.

There is more to the story, I should mention, but it cannot be accessed unless you are a subscriber to that paper. There's no free registration option to the site. The story needs more details as to why that snake was outside, attended or not.
I'm inclined to think the owner just had it laying outside for some sun or something, which some people do from time to time. This may or may not be the case, but the owner should have definately taken it to an area away from other people to do this. Merely frightening someone would have been bad press enough, let alone a dog gets killed.

Clay Davenport said:

I'm inclined to think the owner just had it laying outside for some sun or something, which some people do from time to time. This may or may not be the case, but the owner should have definately taken it to an area away from other people to do this. Merely frightening someone would have been bad press enough, let alone a dog gets killed.

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This may be a common occurrence to have the snake out on the lawn and both parties knew each other, thus they did not think the snake would actually have gone for the dog. Some people believe that a snake will only eat rodents because that is all the snake has ever eaten in captivity.

Though we are just assuming things now...

I wonder if the dog had mauled the snake if there would have been as big an outcry.

Is there no leash law there? If so why wasn't the dogs owner fined?
If the dog was on the leash, perhaps the snake wouldn't have attacked it.

The snakes owner was definitely wrong for letting his python roam loose, but he isn't the only one to blame.

INSANE CANES LLC said:

Is there no leash law there? If so why wasn't the dogs owner fined?
If the dog was on the leash, perhaps the snake wouldn't have attacked it.

The snakes owner was definitely wrong for letting his python roam loose, but he isn't the only one to blame.

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Oh, absolutely. This was an accident which couldn't have happened without two people screwing up. That being said, the amount of damage which a rat terrier can do to a random passerby is nowhere near what a 4m python can do.

i read a different version of the story somewhere(not sure where or i'd post a link) that stated that the snake had escaped and that is how it was outside . i wont swear to it but that is what i recall reading . either way i think the snake owner was in the wrong and should be fined , but , i also think that if there are leash laws then the dog owner was also in the wrong . either way i know if i have any of my snakes outside i am right there with them to warn passing people that my critter is there .

Court squeezes owner of python that attacked dog

Here's an additional article on the story. Apparently the couple with the dog sued the apartment complex owner as well and he settled out of court.
It does mention allowing the snake to get free, which suggests an escape ocurred, but doesn't specifically state that.
Just my opinion, but I think the couple with the dog are taking some advantage of the situation with the lawsuits. I mean, setting a place at the table for the dog, carrying pictures in their wallet, plans for it to be in their wedding that's nearly two years away. Perhaps they really do act like that with the dog, I don't know, but it just seems a little extreme in light of the lawsuit.

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WEST PALM BEACH — At 8 petite pounds, little Max the rat terrier didn't figure to be a match for an 11-foot Burmese python putting a squeeze on him.

He wasn't. In small claims court Monday, Max's owners got justice of sorts for their beloved pet when a judge awarded them nearly $1,300 in damages and court costs from the snake's owner.

Still, Max is dead, and the female python named Diamond continues living in the Savannah Lakes apartment complex in Boynton Beach where this saga occurred.

Like many other pet owners, Wayne Vassello and Shana Lane considered their pampered pooch a part of the family. They set a place for him at the dinner table at Thanksgiving. He was going to be the ring bearer at their wedding, planned for December 2007.

"I keep a picture of him in my wallet," Vassello, 32, testified, voice cracking. "We don't have kids. That was our child. We celebrated birthdays and holidays."

Lane, 25, testified, "We lost our friend. We're devastated."

It was Feb. 3 when Vassello took Max, not yet 3 years old, for a short walk. When he returned, he unleashed Max near the front door and the huge reptile suddenly seized him.

"The snake had grabbed him by the head. I was shocked," Vassello testified. "It had at least two coils around him and there was a lot more snake left."

Vassello ran to his car, grabbed a golf club and began whacking the snake. The serpent released the dog, but Max bolted in a panic, Vassello said. Diamond's weight is unclear, but 50 to 80 pounds "is a good safe bet," said Keith Lovett, director of living collections at the Palm Beach Zoo.

Max was found dead near a preschool the next day. A veterinarian said the dog's injuries were consistent with constriction.

Vassello and Lane sought $1,546 plus a small sum for emotional pain and suffering from John Corkan, who is keeping Diamond for his oldest daughter. He lived a few doors from them. Vassello and Lane contended that Corkan and the owner of the apartment complex were negligent in allowing the snake to get free. The complex owner settled earlier with the couple.

Corkan argued that Vassello is partly to blame because he let Max off his leash. And he suggested that Vassello might have accidentally clubbed Max and caused his demise when he was was hitting Diamond with the golf club.

County Court Judge James Martz didn't buy either argument. Max was under Vassello's control, even off the leash, he said. And even if he inadvertently clubbed the dog, it was while trying to save him.

Diamond "just does her own thing," Corkan said. "She's never made an attempt to bite or squeeze a person. I have no reason not to keep her."

Corkan thaws a frozen rabbit for Diamond, feeding her once a month. She wasn't hungry when she met Max, he said. "She ate two days prior to that. That's the funny part," Corkan said.

"She's a very friendly snake, actually," added his daughter, Aundi.

Maybe, but there have been occasional python assaults on people.

A Pittsburgh-area man was convicted of child endangerment in 2002 after the family's pet python strangled his 8-year-old daughter. A Texas woman needed 17 stitches after friends rescued her from her 13-foot Burmese python, which wrapped itself around her hand and neck in 2004.

Vassello and Lane's experience with Diamond was so traumatic that they moved from Savannah Lakes. They said they will donate the money Corkan must pay them to a rat terrier rescue group.

The couple recently purchased a new dog, also a rat terrier, named Stewie. They bought him on Max's birthday.

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