Python kills toddler

Poor baby girl and another idiot ruining it for everyone else.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...56067K20090701

A discussion and other links containing conflicting accounts can be found here

This incident has sparked the re-birth of Hr669, in its new form here it is...

WARNING: Momentum For HR2811
This is a letter sent by Representative Kendrick Meek of Florida to his colleagues in the US House of Representatives looking for new sponsors to his recently introduced HR 2811. This is the companion bill to Senator Bill Nelson's S373. Also known as "The Python Ban". Rep Meek is looking to capitalize on all the recent publicity and put his bill in the limelight. As soon as it happens our intelligence gathering folks in Washington, DC help USARK bring it to the Reptile Nation. Stay tuned there is much more coming soon. Prepare yourselves for the big fight!

HELP PREVENT THE IMPORTATION AND TRADE OF DANGEROUS BURMESE PYTHONS

From: The Honorable Kendrick B. Meek
Sent By: ***********
Bill: H.R. 2811
Date: 7/9/2009

HELP PREVENT THE IMPORTATION AND TRADE OF DANGEROUS BURMESE PYTHONS
Dear Colleague,
This month, a 2 year old girl in Florida was killed by a Burmese Python which was kept as a pet in the girl’s home. Although this particular owner did not have a permit for the snake, many people across the country do and have still been injured or killed by them. Incidents of injury and death from Burmese Pythons have been reported from Florida to Maine to California. These dangerous snakes are lawfully imported from Southeast Asia and are legally sold in the United States.
Burmese Pythons can grow to be up to 20 feet long and weigh over 250 lbs. Not only do they pose a risk when they escape their tanks, but as they begin to reach their adult size many owners turn them loose, posing a danger to children, pets and delicate ecosystems. Burmese Pythons are strong swimmers and highly adaptable, making their home in almost any warm climate. More than 600 of these pythons were removed from the Florida Everglades Park between 2002 and 2007, and these invasive species feed on many of the endangered native species found there, including white ibis, limpkin, round-tailed muskrats, and woodrats.
The import and trade of Burmese Pythons must be stopped. That is why I introduced H.R. 2811, to include these pythons on the list of dangerous animals, banning their importation and sale in the United States.
Please join me in co-sponsoring this important bill to protect children, pets and endangered ecosystems from dangerous Burmese Pythons.
For more information about this issue or to become a sponsor of H.R. 2811, please contact Ali DiMatteo in my office at **************.

Sincerely,
KENDRICK B. MEEK
Member of Congress

Seriously people CAGE LOCKS!! It's a very small investment to protect our hobby and rights!

Oi. Well, I'm ready for round two whenever we get the go-ahead.

Originally Posted by Twizted Paths

Seriously people CAGE LOCKS!! It's a very small investment to protect our hobby and rights!

Unfortunately the animals responsible for purchasing/installing the cage locks have already escaped and are breeding...

Oi. Well, I'm ready for round two whenever we get the go-ahead.

Count me in!

Doesn't mean we should hand these cretins more excuses to mess with us.

Cage Locks are not the Issue. The issue lies in wheres the responsibility?
The BREEDERS in our hobby need to step up, Grow a pair, and stop selling these massive animals as pets, They are not Pets, 90% of the people that own them Shouldn't. Can someone anyone, show me/tell me, how these animals are well suited for captivity? Or well Suited to be in 90% of the homes they are in? I wonder if the Breeders even know how many of there 50 egg albino burm clutches actually live to adult hood.

What This really comes down to is self regulation. Either We regulate ourselves, which has failed and we have so many python deaths in the news(according to the people supporting bills like these anyway), If we don't regulate ourselves, then uncle sam will, and no one will win.

There needs to be a message to all "large" snake breeders, (burms, rocks, retics, annie's) Or some sort of code. you can't just sell your baby retic to the 14 year old, come on now, where are your business ethics!

Its those snakes, that will single-handedly take down our hobby and make all of us abide by new rules and regulations.

These Bans, Laws, will not stop at the Big 5 either, they will ban all species, regardless of size or threat. As a Community, we need to regulate ourselves and come together to find common ground.

It is relatively easy to blame the Cage locks but that is just a way to sweep the problem under the rug so to speak.

No. I will not support the ban of them. I love them and when I own the appropriate property I will own burms and retics. This is America and I'm sick and tired of having people trample my freedoms.

My father didn't go over seas and fight for my freedoms so I could sit back and watch them get taken away. I didn't grow up with a dad that was permanently screwed up to roll over and say here's my hard earned money come in my home and dictate my life.

You don't want to keep them than don't.

I'm safer walking into a retic cage then in my own neighborhood.

Cage locks are a safe keeping practice that needs to be followed with large snakes. It would have prevented the death above and the one that was is the news before this as well.

It's not sweeping it under the rug, it is a basic husbandry practice that prevents accidents.

Minors shouldn't be allowed to buy pets of any sort without an adult period, regardless of species - mammal, reptiles, amphibians or birds. Hell, I've seen kids hurt themselves with fish. But once again that is the Parent's responsibility the government has no business regulating my family either.

Your Points maybe Valid but your missing the big picture. Its not the Ball pythons, or carpets creating this Legislation, It is the BIG BOYS of the herp world (the big 5)

When Did I use the word BAN? There needs to be a CODE or some kind of system to prevent them from getting into wrong hands Is all. I refuse to allow inept keepers producing thousands of huge unsuitable pets, Destroy my rights to own what I want to own.

If they do BAN the BIG 5, it will not stop there, they will destroy our freedom to own any said reptile, and while I don't agree with out right banning of the big 5, where is the line drawn? In the Government eye's a python is a python regardless be it Ball or Retic.

I don't own retics or rocks, but other irresponsible people that do, are causing my freedoms to own what i choose to own to be in jeopardy.

Your so quick to jump and Say this Is America, Freedom, etc. If any of these laws get passed, We may as well have Hitler as president. My point is Simple, In order to Prevent these laws, we need self regulation, we need to govern ourselves, and if we don't, someone else will.

Since you brought it up, what at all if any does your Father fighting any war have to do with ownership of said reptiles?

We need to govern ourselves as a community or there will be no community.