Python kills two boys. Should nonprofessionals own wild animal

[kvnchrist]

What craziness. 100 lbs 14 foot long and people want these monsters for pets.

I never have been for non-professional people owning wild animals in public areas. There is a reason these monsters are called wild animals as opposed to domesticated animals. Even farm animals can hurt and kill people, but wild animals have their very nature against them being kept domestically. I remember stories about Chimpanzees tearing peoples faces off.

 

 

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/08/python-that-killed-2-boys-was-kept-in-house-police-say/

[Maharg67]

I grew up in snake territory, in the very north of the Northern Territory of Australia, where there are many kinds of snakes. How ever they attack, with venom or through strangulation, snakes can be very dangerous creatures. They can also escape with surprising ease, from confinement, because they are always much thinner compared to their width unlike many other dangerous creatures. Thus a relatively small gap, or hole, will allow one to escape and even to attack prey. In comparison a tiger can kill somebody but you can hardly see one slipping through a small hole in a fence or a gap in a lid that was not properly sealed. It might sound like common sense, or the obvious, but it is too easy for people to overlook such concerns.

 

People keeping snakes should have professional training and be fully registered with routine inspections carried out by dependable people.

 

PS: This does not mean many of the more harmless kinds of snakes though these need to be registered because many are endangered species.

Edited August 10, 2013 by Maharg67

[Tidus44]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/vigil-planned-brunswick-boys-believed-killed-snake-093252818.html?vp=1

 

The ABC News link is unavailable.

[kvnchrist]

I love pets, but the key word in that sentence is pet. Wild animals deserve to be in their natural habitat or as close to it as possible. They need to be cared for by professional keepers, who know the animals needs or be released back into the wilds in their native land, not down a drain or out back where they can effect the natural balance.

These clowns that have these dangerous animals to supplement their ego need to buy a penis extension and leave the rest of us the hell alone. Reminds me of these gun nuts that masturbate with an Uzi.

[Nintii]

_{Alright so I've hunted down your story after the link you provided failed ... and lo and behold, it had}

_{sweet nothing, zip, zero, niks, nada, to do with "non-professional people owning wild animals" ... at all.}

 

_{The python in question escaped from it's enclosure/tank in a Pet Shop in New Brunswick Canada}

_{and made it's way to an apartment above the shop where it killed two children.}

 

_{A far cry from people with the "need for penis extensions" and "nuts who masturbate with uzzi's" ...}

_{don't you think ? :laugh:}

 

Me thinks you need to concentrate on the "animal" at hand ... pardon the pun.

 

Owning exotics (snakes and other reptiles), in my province is fairly easy and no permit is

required, it's only the indigenous ones that require a permit and that's easy enough, all I

need to do is join a Herpetological society.

 

As to the social ramifications of owning said creatures, indigenous Africans are terrified

of snakes ... a lot of folklore and superstition has seen to that, so it's predominantly the

Euro-Africans like myself who keep them, though I prefer "normal" pets like dogs.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Nintii

[kvnchrist]

Non professional people meaning people trained to deal with snakes of this caliber. This is not a garden snake here. It is a 14 foot long monster that is capable of killing small children. The confinement measures were obviously insufficient. The snake was hungry which means it had not been cared for.

 

From news reports,

 

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/Pet+shop+owner+no+permit+for+python/-/1068/1940858/-/6iaxyo/-/index.html

 

 

the pet store had no license for these types of snakes . It's not too much of a stretch to suppose the authorities were not aware of it, so there was no inspections by city authorities, which anyone owning a business dealing with pets would have known about. This makes it a knowingly criminal act to even have the thing in the shop, not to mention having it in an apartment.

 

It was an illegal animal that was not permitted in the city, but the guy wanted it. He was incapable of caring for it and confining it. Where in that do you see anything except a ameture with a hard on for dangerous animals. This was a disaster waiting to happen and I hope the heck this guy looses a lot because the parents of these kids have lost their whole world.

[TRoaches]

Fatal snake attacks are extremely rare, and fatal snake attacks by pet snakes are so rare that it is nearly unheard of. Dogs are, by any measure, much more dangerous than snakes. There are millions of dog attacks every year, and always a number of fatalities. The fatalities are usually infants and small children. If you are going to label any creature as a "monster" the label is much more appropriately applied to dog than a snake, unless you are trying to be sensational.

 

If given a choice between being locked in a cage with a 14 foot snake or an aggressive, territorial dog would choose the snake. The snake is less capable of doing harm to me, more predictable, and more easily controlled. If the dog's potential for destruction is compared to that of the snake it is clearly more monstrous than the "monster" snake could ever be.

 

Dog lovers of Nexus: Please note that I love dogs as well as snakes, and am not condemning dog ownership in any way by pointing out their potentially dangerous nature.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_States

 

This is another example of a sad but relatively unimportant incident being pounced on by the media because it is sensational and it fills space.

Edited August 8, 2013 by TRoaches

[HeyYou]

Here in the states, owners are held responsible for the actions of their pets. Your dog/cat/coon/whathaveyou harms someone, YOU are on the hook for it. (or, your insurance company, as the case may be.) If my dog killed a couple kids, I would fully expect to be sued, and my dog put down. As it should be. Now, if said kids were tormenting my dog, and it attacked them...... My thoughts are, it's THEIR fault.. however, the law doesn't see it that way, and I can still be sued, and my dog will still be put down. Nice huh?