On the news this evening, there's a story about a "pet Burmese python" that got out of it's cage and strangled a toddler. We've probably all heard about this sort of incidence before; a true tragedy, but totally avoidable.
Of course if you have venomous snakes, your cages should be absolutely, positively escape proof. There are some out there! Of course you have to close the cage to make it escape-proof; however, when it comes to non-venomous, we all tend to be a little more lax or nonchalant. How many of us would raise our hands if someone asked if we kept them in sweater boxes?
This particular snake was obviously a large python, and should have been housed properly. After a certain size, they can be dangerous, even to adult humans, and kept in appropriate cages. Those cages should be absolutely escape-proof, and checked to see they're locked, each and every time we work around them.
We don't breed or sell large pythons any more. We own some, but they are all rescues, save for one African Rock python who, after 17 years, is only about 10 feet long! Part of the reason is that when these snakes get big, we get them back, and we don't "rent" snakes! Another reason is that we would hear stories like the above (not from our customers), or hear that people were letting these snakes "sleep" with them, or "run loose" in the house as they didn't "have a cage big enough." We decided we wanted to sell to people who wanted a snake because they like the animal, knew how to properly hosue it, and not interested in the sensationalism that a big python might give them.
I feel sorry for the couple, but either they were not given proper information on how to take care of such an animal, or they chose to think they knew more than the "experts." In the above mentioned story I believe they were charged and convicted, of child endangerment, and third-degree murder. Their lives have been changed forever, and not for the better.
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