MIDDLETOWN -- Some thought it was alive when they first saw it, but city crews used a payloader to carry off a python’s carcass after it was discovered in the Westfield section of the city.
Animal Control Officer Jaime Seixas said Monday residents need not worry about a similar snake slithering out of the woods, because the species is not indigenous to the area.
On Monday morning, city employees were notified that a large, dead snake was lying in the road. Police found a reticulated python between 10 and 12 feet in length In the middle of a lane on the dirt section of Footit Drive, Seixas said. It had been dead for a couple of days, but was not seen by area residents until Monday.
Seixas believes the snake was kept by someone, but was dropped in the road after it had died.
"It wouldn’t have lived in the cold overnight," she said. "I don’t think it was released."
Reticulated pythons, which average from 10 to 20 feet in length as adults, require tropical temperatures, according to the Vida Preciosa International Web site. It is considered to be the largest of the pythons.
A public works crew went out to pick up the snake, and Assistant Superintendent of Highways Jerry Flynn said a resident thought it was alive and kicked at it. It had been put there overnight, because area residents didn’t see it until Monday morning, he added.
"We thought it was a piece of rug," Flynn said. "It was pretty big."
Flynn estimated the weight of the snake to be between 85 and 120 pounds. "It was already rotting," he said adding that public works buried it.
A similar incident occurred with the same species of snake about four years ago,, Seixas said.
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Middletown Press
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