Python Strangles 2-Year-Old Central Florida Girl
 

This one is going to bring an even larger negative impact on the reptile community...
While my heart goes out to the family of this child, they are ultimately responsible (IMHO) for their own child's death. I will GLADLY retract that statement if more enlightening information comes out to show differently.

http://www.theledger.com/article/200...l-Florida-Girl

Yeah, i definitely feel that the parents are responsible for this childs death. I feel that anyone who has a large snake/dangerous snake in an inapropriate insecure enclosure is responsible if that animal gets out, even if it dosnt hurt someone, the potential is there certainly.

Its this kind of stuff that makes us all look bad, and puts our entire hobby at risk. Im just sorry that a little girl had to pay in such a way for these irresponsible parents to learn a very valuable lesson. *shakes head* What a shame.

What exactly is it going to take for people to realize that burns and retics can NOT be kept in tanks? The mother and boyfriend both need locked up. These people make me so sick. I am sorry that that poor girl had to pay for the adults negligent husbandry practices. This is just the type of foothold they need to reintroduce a ban.

At least they reporter did state it was only acting on instinct & pointed out that a lot of the wild pet problem could be from that pet store getting trashed in the hurricane. As bad as the facts are they didn't turn it into a sensationalist anti snake frenzy. Yet.

Sadly, not all are doing it the proper way.... http://www.clickorlando.com/news/19914383/detail.html (from nohr669.com).

Though, I just re-read the article, and they've toned it down a little bit from last night.

Well, that was nice while it lasted but talk about short-lived...a friend sent me this: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/07/...2701246473637/ in which the writer directly attributes the invasion of Burmese pythons into the Everglades to negligent pet owners, and notes as well that larger pythons have also killed adults.

I hate that an innocent child paid the ultimate price for her family's irresponsibility (be it caused by ignorance or negligence)! :hot:
But this is no doubt a blow to our community. The average person has no clue about snakes; when I told a friend that I had ball pythons, she was horrified because she was imagining giant, pet-eating child-killers. She has had less and less to do with me since learning that, even though I carefully explained the difference between large pythons and balls, and we spoke extensively about my strong belief in the importance of responsible, safe reptile-keeping and how am I upholding that. She still believes in her heart that I am a reckless, if not bad, person who is imperiling my children every day. The education efforts of USARK and others are too easily undermined by a few bad apples, who reinforce common misconceptions.

It seems to me that the best way to preserve the reptile hobby and combat such skewed perception is for the reptile community not only to be instrumental in helping to draft sensible legislation (as much as I HATE being legislated LOL) but also to actively support prosecution of such people as these - which can only happen if there IS legislation in place, I'm afraid. Then: 1) people can see that those of us who are responsible keepers are deeply concerned about safety and native ecology and 2) at the very least, the legislation can protect those us who are abiding by it if it comes down to it.

So how big is it ? 12 or 8 foot? And what's the girl's name? Basics you idiot reporters!! Basics!

I'm sorry, but that's not a real friend in my book. An associate perhaps but not a friend. My boas don't make me a bad momma and some are prolly bigger.

I can see the more tropic states being restrictive, I don't like it but I can almost understand. A $100 yearly permit is excessive though.

The laws for keeping and housing the snake were already in place proving that you can't legislate the stupid out of people.

More legislation is NOT the answer, education for all and punishment of the particular moron adults is. There is no need to punish those who keep properly, the one's who don't won't no matter what law is passed.

:iagree: :iagree:

A drunk driver kills some one. You don't take car's away from every one just the drunk driver!

RE: links
 

I agree with all of you...what I find disturbing, though is that Matt from Critter Control kept referring to pythons, in general, as a dangerous animal!
And whoever just said it, hit the nail on the head...you can't legislate the stupidity out of people! SERIOUSLY...
Now we're going to have to rehash all the crap we just finished hashing with HR669, with even more yo-yo's coming out of the woodwork, adamantly agreeing that we must put a stop to these killer snakes...
And the press DOESN'T help when they can't get their stories straight--they sound like fisherman talking about the one that got away (no offense intended to fisherman!). It started off 8.5 ft, grew to 12 ft, next it'll be the biggest snake ever in the world...

It's very true that you can't legislate the stupidity out of people. What you CAN do is use carefully-crafted legislation to JAIL the stupid out of them! It gives them one more statute to be prosecuted under, and can regulate what sorts of punishments are meted out for various crimes. It would certainly beat the "zero tolerance" law that no doubt is being written by some politician as we speak! And, good laws protect citizens who abide by them.

Consider this hypothetical example (I say "hypothetical" because, though it supposedly really happened in my area, I heard about it second-hand so I can't swear it's true): in my county, it is illegal to possess a snake that is 10 feet or more in length, unless you have a county-approved permit. The guy in question owned a 12-foot Burm. The guy's neighbor called the police and complained for no other reason than that it creeped him out to know this snake was in the house next door, and he didn't think the guy should be allowed to possess it (which, I might add, are the very grounds on which a TOTAL BAN was recently passed in an adjacent county). The cops came out to the guy's house. The guy gave them his permit and invited them in to see the snake in its secure enclosure. They then went to the neighbor and explained that the snake owner was within his legal rights and there was nothing they could do. This would have turned out very differently had there a) been no law or b) had the guy not been following it. And newspapers love to print articles about big menacing pythons and the stupid scofflaws who own them.

You begin to get an idea of how a well-written law can protect snake owners as well as snake-phobic people, and punish those who flaunt it. New laws are GOING to be written, and they will be much tougher than before because the general populace is uneducated and afraid. The way to preserve our hobby is to be proactive in helping craft legislation that also protects US and demonstrates our goodwill and determination to be safe and responsible. We as a community will be judged not only by our devotion to our own good reptile-keeping practices but by our commitment to eradicating the bad apples among us. Responding defensively and/or emotionally will only convince our opponents they are right.

(Good Lord, I've been in Washington too long!)

This is somewhat true. She was an acquaintance on the way to being a friend. But, I'm a very tolerant person and I feel I'm more likely to change her mind about snakes if I continue to demonstrate my committment to safety and responsibility and to educate her about snakes whenever the opportunity arises, as opposed to confirming her private view of me by cutting her loose because SHE'S ignorant. ;) Little by little, as we are thrown together through kids' activities, she gets to know me better and sees firsthand what kind of person and animal keeper I am. Lately, I can see the wheels spinning in her mind when we're together: "she's so normal...how can she be so weird?" :rolleyes: It also helps that my kids (ages 7 and 4) are able to speak knowledgeably about reptiles. My son can even spout off Latin species names and discuss husbandry in detail. People wind up so impressed that they forget to feel paranoid.