14 foot Burmese killed after biting owner

PALMER - A 14-foot Burmese python that turned on its owner in the midst of last weekend's flooding, was shot to death by police who at one point were worried that their pistols might not be strong enough for the job.

The 180-pound snake, named Jesus, was killed by a shotgun blast from police after it attacked its owner, 22-year-old Gary R. Velthouse, biting his left wrist and coiling its body around his arm.

"Its mouth was around my whole hand ... I figured I could get him off, but I couldn't," Velthouse said yesterday.

Detective Sgt. Scott E. Haley, who along with Sgt. Rodney A. North and Sgt. Christopher J. Burns responded Saturday afternoon to the basement of 50 Cleveland St., said they threw a blanket over the snake, which has a 14-foot striking distance and told everyone to evacuate.

"It was so big and strong, we were concerned about shooting it with a pistol," Haley said.

Haley held a flashlight, while North shot the snake in the head with a shotgun.

Prior to calling police, Velthouse's friend tried prying the snake's mouth off Velthouse's wrist with a screwdriver. Stabbing the snake with a machete finally made it release him.

"The snake was very agitated. It was angry and you couldn't get too close to it," said Haley. "We called the MSPCA and explained the situation and we came to the conclusion that the snake had to be disposed of."

He said the call came in the midst of a busy weekend of responding to flood related emergencies.

"This is another example of an animal that shouldn't have been a pet. It turned and hurt somebody," Haley said.

Velthouse, who was taken to Springfield's Baystate Medical Center, thinks the water leaking into the basement was causing the snake's heating pad to short-circuit, giving it electric shocks. Velthouse said he had the python for three years, and kept it in a large cage. Velthouse, who has missed three days of work, said his hand is still swollen.

"He was always friendly. This is the only time it ever happened, and just because it was in pain," Velthouse said.

Police Chief Robert P. Frydryk said the Environmental Police have been contacted, to make sure the pet was legal.

While Burmese pythons can be kept as pets because they are generally docile, reticulated pythons cannot. The two snakes look similar, but the reticulated is aggressive, said Thomas W. French, assistant director of the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

French said Jesus was probably a female, because of its large size. French said it's possible that the python smelled food on Velthouse, causing it to strike.

"That's an animal as big as ones that have killed people. It is usually a reasonably safe pet, but they are potentially dangerous when they get to this size. It's a painful bite," he said.

The incident hasn't turned Velthouse off snakes. He still has a red-tailed boa.

"It's a lot smaller. It's not a problem," Velthouse said.

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Did they shoot

Mike Tyson in the head after he bit someone!!!

Uh, I'm willing to bet I would bite someone too if I was getting my butt shocked like that. 'Spose they'd shoot me too?

14 foot striking distance......OMG, you'd think.......oh, never mind. These reports will always contain ignorant misinformation like that.....makes for a better story you know, if they don't actually put FACTS in it.

aaww, that is so sad...

Does anyone else think they maybe could have held the snake's head under water as long as it took to make it let go, instead of bludgeoning it like that?

Why is it that reptiles need to be shot by large weapons. Understandable you would want heavy firepower for a Rhinoceros, but a snake? I am pretty sure the handgun would have done the job the shotgun did.

"Snake!!! Quick, get the steam roller! The truck will not kill it as well!"

Keep in mind that the snake had already released the man's hand (that happened after they stabbed it with the machete)...Apparently, their resident expert at the MSPCA recognized that this snake was beyond rehabilitation (once it got a taste of human blood there would be no turning it away???, lol) and had to be put down. How about containing the animal and contacting someone that has a clue. The rampant disregard for reptiles - whether borne of fear, dislike, or lack of knowledge - that is found in many "shelters" is truly appalling. I thought the 'PCA' part of the acronym stood for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (A SNAKE!!! GET THE SHOTGUN!!), that animal shelters would shelter animals, and that humane societies would be based upon theories of humane treatment...this should be true without prejudice. Bunnies, guinea pigs, dogs, and cats (read: warm and furry things) get preferential treatment. In some areas, reptiles are prohibited simply because the animal control officer doesn't like them AND nobody cared enough to stop it (this statement made with the knowledge that frequently by the time the public is aware of such things, it is too late to stop them)

It had a 14 foot striking distance because it could launch itself, wholebody, into the air. It could do this because it is an angry female that was "in pain". Why the snake was in pain the article does not tell us.

Harold, obviously it was beyond rehabilitation, it had all those machete marks on its head.

You want to talk about biters? How about hamsters and cockatiels?

Stories like this upset me. Once again the animal has to be punished because the human is an idiot. Oh, and thank God the human idiot has ANOTHER snake to console himself with.

perhaps the person wielding the machete should have lopped off the arm that the snake was attached to...clearly it was just hungry - it didn't get to be 180 lbs by not eating, lol. (still trying to picture the thing...14' long and 180 lbs - must be quite the sight. I wonder if it gets dizzy rolling back and forth, trying to get to the heating pad)

OH MY GOD hh!!



I remember when I had a 13ft Burmese-I kept a spray bottle of alcohol and some smelling salts attached to the cage AT ALL TIMES. Man you think you'd find these things out before you got a snake got that gets big! (yea right) A police dept not far from me has shot 2 big snakes in the last 5yrs. I just found this out when I dropped a card off at the station offering my services on snake removal and rescue-they just had no clue what to do with them! I'm finding there is so much mis-information and NO information in places it is needed about snakes. Oh well we gotta keep informing when the chance presents itself.

stef

"Detective Sgt. Scott E. Haley, who along with Sgt. Rodney A. North and Sgt. Christopher J. Burns responded Saturday afternoon to the basement of 50 Cleveland St., said they threw a blanket over the snake, which has a 14-foot striking distance and told everyone to evacuate"
Sgt. Burns doesn;t know what he is talking about, a 14' snake python doesn't have a strike range of 14' Maybe a range of 5 to 7' at most.

i think people that go to school, high school should take at least 1 coarse in animlas and a big part of it as reptiles. big part of this world is animals. and people always say "oh i didnt know" when it omce sot them removing them the wrong way. or saying 14 foot stikeing distance. i feel so bad for the snake.

jesus

jesus was a great snake and he was my son's pet. they did not want to have to cut it or pry open his mouth to get him to release his grip on gary. my son works nights and was sound asleep when he heard the zapping of the heat rock. he immediately went to jesus rescue when he heard the noise. jesus had been being zapped for quite a while. he ended up biting gary and then squeezing him, being scared now, because of the pain of the bite and the power of the squeeze everyone paniced. the last thing any one of the kids wanting to do was to hurt the snake, gary would not let anyone touch jesus until he started losing feeling in his arm. the snake would not let go of the grip he had. so gary's friend, cowboy, cut him with the only thing handy, which was a machete. the snake released gary then went after cowboy it was like something out of a sci-fi movie. The police then had to be called cause the snake was hurt beyond help and very angry. the rest is history. but jesus was loved by all here and he had a decent burial. we are not cruel to animals the events of the flooding caused by the hurricane did not only take away the life of jesus but destroyed the whole basement. we miss him .at least we still have some great photo's

Well....

I for one like to see a photo of a 180 pound burmese python. My 8' only weighs 14 pounds and my 9' however weighs 26 lbs (I think the previous owner power fed this one, he is supposedly a year and a half old). BTW Harold these are the display burms I was asking about a couple of months ago, the albino green never showed up.

jesus

if you click on my comment and go to my gallery there is a picture of jesus with my son i think i am not sure of how to send you a picture unless you e-mail me. I know jesus was 180 cause we took him to the vet for a mouth infection and cleared the office so if you know how I get a picture to you please let me know my e-mail is [email protected] later la

you know what, I really don't know the striking distance of the snake. all I know is that my son loved his snake, and the snake kept squeezing and biting him they have a very powerful grip, there were no options left.. the police wrote their story. with the facts that they had. we wanted the snake to live we waited until we exhausted all of our options before getting the police involved. he was breaking my kids arm. my kid kept saying no do not hurt him but jesus kept squeezing tighter and tighter still with his teeth sunk into his hand all us bystanders took matters into our own hands I prefer my son's life versus jesus.. we are not cruel to animals and yes he was the best fed snake ever but his cage along with our whole basement was under water and yep insurance covered nothing but we gave jesus a very proper burial and yes there were a lot of tears he was a great pet until he got electrocuted, he had no idea gary was trying to help him so let up on the cruelty to animals we loved him

Your son NEVER should have had that snake and needs to adopt out his RTB.
He has NO idea what he is doing.
I have been struck and coiled by a retic that was just about the same size (180 lb burmese, yeah right) and could not get him off myself. You know what I did? Had the wife pour a bit of grain alcohol on it's head. He released immediately.

Anyone one who knows anything about keeping snakes knows you do not use heat rocks, do not attempt to handle a large constrictor by themselves, and keep neccessary items nearby (alcohol, hooks) in the event of a problem.

That snake never should have been hacked by a machete or blown away by the police.

Your son is just another example of an irresponsible snake owner which led to the death of an animal and outrageous media reporting.

thanks for the insight

you are right.. and it was outrageous media. In a time of panic you don't think of alchohol but now we will keep a bottle right next to the other snake we did not want to hurt jesus thanks for making us feel crappy again. need I remind you that the cellar was under water and everything down there was getting ruined there was more going on then just the snake the hurricane thing was going on i can e-mail you a picture if you want to see jesus he did weigh 140 lbs and he was 14 ft long .linda

jesus was a big snake check out pics in my gallery

I have a picture of Jesus in my gallery check out the pics under lindalou

Lesson learned the hard way...

NO HOT ROCKS! Cut off the cords and use them to assist shedding only!
I would also have the scales checked. I have kept pythons that were 150lbs that were larger than that one. I did go to the photo gallery.