Pregnant mom meets burmese python
October 28, 2009 5:42 PM
Peter Schaller
A local mother to be, face to face with a burmese python outside her home. Wildlife officials say the snake weighs more than forty pounds and could strangle a small child. A 9 and a half foot burmese python was caught by animal control officers. They say it was roaming free through a residential neighborhood. A mother and her pregnant daughter, out of a walk here in Vero Beach. Nothing out of the ordinary, they were trying to get her mind off those painful contractions. All they had to do was look down at their feet, and boy did they get a distraction.
"Too big, very big, it was brown and black and I got so scared when I saw it," said Cristina Rangel.
Rangel is 8 months pregnant, expecting another son. She wasn't ready for this.
"And I was having a contraction, and I was stopped like this when she told me," she said, "I saw the snake I forgot about my pain."
It was this nine and a half foot python, slithering up next to her and mom here on 87th Street. Her mom kept gettitng closer to the snake, Cristina wasn't having it. She called 911, wildlife officials were there in 5 minutes. According to Animal Control the snake didn't have a tracking chip inside of it so it will be nearly impossible to find out who owns the snake. They say it is illegal to let a snake like this roam free, it isn't native to the area. For this expectant mother, there's snapshots and a great story to go with it.
She said, "So now we have a good story to tell the baby when he gets big."
In the next few days this giant snake will be turned over to wildlife officials, as for this pregnant mother she expects to deliver in a few weeks. Animal control officers say snakes on the loose in Vero beach are rare, but it is the second they've captured so far this year.
At least animal services didn't kill it on sight, maybe it will have a chance.