Two children strangled by escaped python

greentea is just wrong

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/pulse/102/international-news/1250/snake-strangles-two-children-while-sleeping

"
Two small brothers, age 5 and 7, have been tragically strangled to death in their sleep in Canada, by a massive 16-foot python that escaped from a pet store below the apartment where the children were staying the night.
The first pictures have emerged of little Connor and Noah Barth, who were sleeping soundly when the 100-pound African Rock Python fell from the ceiling and attacked them.
The boys were spending the night with Jean-Claude Savoie, who lives above the Reptile Ocean pet store that he owns in the tiny New Brunswick city of Campbellton. Reptile Ocean is home to a veritable menagerie of exotic animals, including crocodiles, tarantulas, tortoises and at numerous snakes.
Mr Savoie described to Global News how he walked into the living room and found the two boys dead about 6.30am on Monday. He found the snake coiled in a hole nearby.
He said the creeping serpent slithered upstairs into his apartment through the ventilation ducts and creeped into the ceiling.
It then fell through the ceiling and dropped onto the small boys from above. Mr Savoie said he believes the snake coiled around both children and crushed them as they slept together on the floor.
The National Post reports that the snake was a 14 to 16-foot African rock python that even its owner said was 'vicious' and was rarely handled."


So sad. Don't know how believable it is though...

Tabnabs

Seems legit

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2013/08/05/nb-two-die-boa-attack.html

Dostoevsky

Two children strangled by escaped python


Horrific, particularly after what I've seen in the past fortnight. Just two weeks ago I was on a boat with others and we were approached by three smiling children, each in a separate coracle. They looked cute at first but as they got nearer I and everybody else next to me pulled back in shock and fear: each of the children had a very large python snake around their necks. The kids, the eldest of whom was about 10, addressed us all in English "one dollar", "one dollar". To think parents send their children out to "work" with a python over their tiny shoulders so Westerners can pay them for photos is a type of depravity we don't see too much of in Ireland, despite all our moaning about things at home.

Why are people allowed to keep these "pet" pythons and "pet" Rottweilers - never mind sell them, as is the case here, and rabbit on about how "nice" these animals "really" are when a child gets her/his face bitten or, in this case, when two children get strangled?

Sir Humphrey Appleby

Feckin unreal, absolutley tragic though.

Fukuyama

Rottweilers are fine.

It's idiots who don't train them. When a dog that size becomes unruly you physically keep it under control. Not in a cruel way - but a smack on the nose, a scolding and a firm toss out the back door.

I have no idea why someone would keep a python at all. Let alone have it around children. There's zero communication between them and humans. They can't be trained and have no loyalty to a person or a family.

1ZRed

I never understood the appeal of owning a big snake like that. 95% of the time it's in its small cage, bar the times you bring it out to throw around your neck when you show your mates.

I kind see them as useless as goldfish in that most of the time they're just there. But unlike a goldfish I wouldn't be too worried about him escaping and strangling me.

All I know is if I had kids I'd make sure one of them wasn't in the house no matter how rare a situation like this is

MusicalMelody

Was the snake not for sale? As it had escaped from a pet store.

Frank Black

Dean0088 wrote: »

Rottweilers are fine.

It's idiots who don't train them. When a dog that size becomes unruly you physically keep it under control. Not in a cruel way - but a smack on the nose, a scolding and a firm toss out the back door.

I have no idea why someone would keep a python at all. Let alone have it around children. There's zero communication between them and humans. They can't be trained and have no loyalty to a person or a family.

Probably for the same reason people keep pet rottweilers - to demonstrate to the world how 'hard' they are.

keano_afc

I thought it escaped from a pet store?

Banjo String

The snake had to have been extremely hungry and not too secured in its tank to have been determined enough to bother.

A snake, when properly cared for/housed properly and fed aptly will generally be docile enough and content enough to bother looking for food.

More than likely human error was at play here.

Poor kids though. R.I.P

Gummy Panda

Frank Black wrote: »

Probably for the same reason people keep pet rottweilers - to demonstrate to the world how 'hard' they are.

Rottweilers are really cute as pups though

LottieP25

keano_afc wrote: »

I thought it escaped from a pet store?

They were sleeping above the pet/zoo store.

Snake was not for sale afaik , it was show only.

greentea is just wrong

I hope it will be properly investigated. Seems to be a lot of open questions...
How did the friend not hear anything going on, from the snake getting in, and then the 2 boys being strangled?

God love their parents

krudler

Mm sounds a bit fishy tbh, even a heavy sleeper would be woken by a 100lb snake crashing through a ceiling and landing on you, the kids slept through that and the feeling of being strangled? pretty tragic either way but total negligence on the father's part if the snake managed to escape its enclosure, especially if it was known to be vicious

humanji

Threads merged.

brianwalshcork

Tragic.

Perhaps my irrational fear of snakes isn't so irrational... I blame that scene in Indian Jones and the temple of doom where Harrison Ford fell backwards into the coffin full of snakes...

I wouldn't be next or near a snake with my eyes closed.


Back OT, why are dangerous reptiles allowed to be held in residential areas? I don't blame the snake here, the store owner is 100% responsible.

krudler

brianwalshcork wrote: »

Tragic.

Perhaps my irrational fear of snakes isn't so irrational... I blame that scene in Indian Jones and the temple of doom where Harrison Ford fell backwards into the coffin full of snakes...

I wouldn't be next or near a snake with my eyes closed.


Back OT, why are dangerous reptiles allowed to be held in residential areas? I don't blame the snake here, the store owner is 100% responsible.

Because not all snakes are dangerous? plenty of people own snakes who are completely timid and docile, granted large ones can be dangerous purely because of their size but that's the owners responsibility to ensure they are kept secure.

Rhys Essien

I posted this sign below over in the accommodation forum last week as a joke for someone asking how to keep annoying kids away from their house.:eek:

ibarelycare

Those poor boys, but this story is all very odd. Why would the snake kill both boys? It would have no reason to, it would strangle one and then eat it presumably? Could a snake even get up a vertical ventilation pipe?? How did it just fall through the ceiling? I dunno, it definitely seems a bit fishy...

gcgirl

Frank Black wrote: »

Probably for the same reason people keep pet rottweilers - to demonstrate to the world how 'hard' they are.

A friend has a Rottweiler she is adorable my mum has a jack russell who I love but his got a aggressive nature on which my mum and myself have classed over the little shït is treated like a child even my own dog who is a Samoyed mixed with a gs is pretty timid it's up to the owner on how the dog is brought up!

Gummy Panda

gcgirl wrote: »

A friend has a Rottweiler she is adorable my mum has a jack russell who I love but his got a aggressive nature on which my mum and myself have classed over the little shït is treated like a child even my own dog who is a Samoyed mixed with a gs is pretty timid it's up to the owner on how the dog is brought up!

Can't remember if it was a wibbs post or another forum that Rottweiler's are naturally very friendly playful dogs but they look fierce and are usually trained to match their look.

CruelCoin

Dean0088 wrote: »

Let alone have it around children.

The snake escaped from a petshop and went into the apartment.

Not sure if the owner knew there were kids there.

Seridisand

Frank Black wrote: »

Probably for the same reason people keep pet rottweilers - to demonstrate to the world how 'hard' they are.

Someone seems to have an issue with Rottweilers, ever actually owned one?

On topic, does it not strike anyone as strange that an apparently hungry and angry python, killed but didnt attempt to eat either of these kids(Yeah, I know.....)?
I've owned a few different constrictor snakes and Ive never seen one, remotely interested in anything it wasn't planning to eat.

ibarelycare

ibarelycare wrote: »

Those poor boys, but this story is all very odd. Why would the snake kill both boys? It would have no reason to, it would strangle one and then eat it presumably? Could a snake even get up a vertical ventilation pipe?? How did it just fall through the ceiling? I dunno, it definitely seems a bit fishy...

If the two lads were asleep together, side by side, probably just wrapped around both simultaneously. As mentioned, it killed them, but didn't eat them?


I know African Rock Pythons can be oddballs, but I agree, something seems to be amiss.

Darkglasses

CruelCoin wrote: »

The snake escaped from a petshop and went into the apartment.

Not sure if the owner knew there were kids there.

Op says that the kids were staying over with the owner of the pet store. Although there's a lot unbelievable things in this story, so that might not be true either.

krudler

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Can't remember if it was a wibbs post or another forum that Rottweiler's are naturally very friendly playful dogs but they look fierce and are usually trained to match their look.

someone I work with has one and it's the biggest wuss of a dog you'd ever meet she's afraid of her own shadow lol

anncoates

Maybe the snake killed them but was unable to eat them because of their size?

Also would one child have woken up while the other was getting killed though?

SEPT 23 1989

i hope snake has a good lawyer

Obliq

All very strange and tragic. I'd be seriously skeptical about how a snake that big crashed to the floor of an apartment and strangled two small kids without any of them making enough noise to wake everyone. And why were the 2 kids sleeping on the floor of a different room to the kid they were having a sleepover with? Although I know that's beside the point - none of it makes sense though. It all comes across as waaay too coincidental.

Kids for sleepover - sleeping on floor of separate room

Huge snake escapes on that night, makes it's way directly to the room with the kids in

Snake owned by father of child - both sleeping in another room

Nobody wakes up


Hmmmm.

Artful_Badger

ibarelycare wrote: »

Those poor boys, but this story is all very odd. Why would the snake kill both boys? It would have no reason to, it would strangle one and then eat it presumably? Could a snake even get up a vertical ventilation pipe?? How did it just fall through the ceiling? I dunno, it definitely seems a bit fishy...

Its a snake, it probably didnt think the crime through just landed on things that were moving and being 16ft long and solid muscle coiled around them and killed them, small snakes will coil around your arm pretty tight with no intention of trying to eat ya.

And snakes can get around too particularly them big ones. I'd imagine too its very heavy and this is an apartment over a pet store, so ceiling might not be very solid.

krudler

anncoates wrote: »

Maybe the snake killed them but was unable to eat them because of their size?

Also would one child have woken up while the other was getting killed though?

Snakes could eat something a lot bigger than a small child, there's videos online of them eating things like full grown deer and even small hippos, would take hours and hours to do but they can, a 5 year old child could easily be done. I dunno the whole thing seems odd, I can't imagine a 100lb snake falling through a ceiling would be something anyone could sleep through, it's very tragic though, horrible way to die.

BeerWolf

Horrid way to go, and as others have said... does seem fishy - one can't rule out possible homicide and using the snake as a scapegoat.

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

i hope snake has a good lawyer

Ain't that what lawyers are, snakes? :pac:

Pensivepuca

Something real strange occurred. I can understand the snake possibly escaping, and I assume a 'pipe' of pure muscle could climb up a ventaliation shaft (but why enter it, would it not stay near heat?), and maybe, a weak ceiling and a very heavy creature. But not waking by a fallen snake crashing down the ceiling? It says the wee boys were sleeping beside each other, so could have been crushed together. I dont understand how they never woke, if that even was the case of events.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Dostoevsky wrote: »

Two children strangled by escaped python


Horrific, particularly after what I've seen in the past fortnight. Just two weeks ago I was on a boat with others and we were approached by three smiling children, each in a separate coracle. They looked cute at first but as they got nearer I and everybody else next to me pulled back in shock and fear: each of the children had a very large python snake around their necks. The kids, the eldest of whom was about 10, addressed us all in English "one dollar", "one dollar". To think parents send their children out to "work" with a python over their tiny shoulders so Westerners can pay them for photos is a type of depravity we don't see too much of in Ireland, despite all our moaning about things at home.

Why are people allowed to keep these "pet" pythons and "pet" Rottweilers - never mind sell them, as is the case here, and rabbit on about how "nice" these animals "really" are when a child gets her/his face bitten or, in this case, when two children get strangled?

Nice ignorant post you got yourself there

losthorizon

SamHall wrote: »

The snake had to have been extremely hungry and not too secured in its tank to have been determined enough to bother.

A snake, when properly cared for/housed properly and fed aptly will generally be docile enough and content enough to bother looking for food.

More than likely human error was at play here.

Poor kids though. R.I.P

Exactly that snake must have been starving but my heart goes out to the kids a terrible way to die. Hopefully they didnt suffer too much.

crackcrack30

Isn't it about time the there are global classifications of what are deemed wild & domesticated/tame animals.....allowing only zoo's to house the wild ones.....

Read somewhere that there are more 'Pet' tigers in California than found in the wild in India..

REPTILEDAN88

SamHall wrote: »

The snake had to have been extremely hungry and not too secured in its tank to have been determined enough to bother.
A snake, when properly cared for/housed properly and fed aptly will generally be docile enough and content enough to bother looking for food.
More than likely human error was at play here.
Poor kids though. R.I.P

Tanks left open means a snake will roam at some stage eventually and being fed has nothing to do with it. Snakes are not like Dogs at all some will try bite no matter how gentle you or how much you feed them venomous and non venomous alike its just how snakes some are. I have kept what you might consider docile Rattlesnakes (never shown any signs of defense) and then some really defensive Carpet Pythons Kingsnakes and Cornsnakes even and anyone saying Pythons being dangerous is ignorant as they are not all man eating sized Snakes who kill people on site. I have experience with most Reptiles available in the pet trade and keep my fair share too, I have kept several species of Vipers from too 2 species of Rattlesnakes included so trust me I know snakes this was simply down to human error and ultimately the poor kids paid the price sadly, its not the first time its happened either and I reckon it wont be the last sadly. For what I have heard this place was reported several times too to SPCA's etc for lack of care etc too.
Also whats wrong with Rottweilers, Pomeranians have killed too should we stop keeping and breeding them too, again people are at fault there.

Christ the Redeemer

What a nightmare..

CruelCoin

anncoates wrote: »

Maybe the snake killed them but was unable to eat them because of their size?

Also would one child have woken up while the other was getting killed though?

Snakes of that size (if the size is real and not a daily mail measurement) can eat meal much larger than a small child.

Sephichan

The update on this story:
RCMP say snake was never in pet store, the tank was in the apartment, and the snake was in the tank when they came into the home.

I honestly feel the snake is a scapegoat in this situation, there are too many unanswered questions.

If the snake was killing for food, why would it kill both?
A snake definitely couldn't kill both at the same time, at least not quickly and efficiently that neither made a sound, so why is it no one heard anything?
Why would a parents first thought be to unwrap the snake and put it back in it's cage after finding it wrapped around your kids?

The whole thing sounds ridiculously sketchy.

ivytwine

REPTILEDAN88 wrote: »

Tanks left open means a snake will roam at some stage eventually and being fed has nothing to do with it. Snakes are not like Dogs at all some will try bite no matter how gentle you or how much you feed them venomous and non venomous alike its just how snakes some are. I have kept what you might consider docile Rattlesnakes (never shown any signs of defense) and then some really defensive Carpet Pythons Kingsnakes and Cornsnakes even and anyone saying Pythons being dangerous is ignorant as they are not all man eating sized Snakes who kill people on site. I have experience with most Reptiles available in the pet trade and keep my fair share too, I have kept several species of Vipers from too 2 species of Rattlesnakes included so trust me I know snakes this was simply down to human error and ultimately the poor kids paid the price sadly, its not the first time its happened either and I reckon it wont be the last sadly. For what I have heard this place was reported several times too to SPCA's etc for lack of care etc too.
Also whats wrong with Rottweilers, Pomeranians have killed too should we stop keeping and breeding them too, again people are at fault there.

Hey ReptileDan, not being funny, what is the appeal of owning snakes for you?

Personally I can't understand why anyone would want one as a pet. They terrify me But I'd love to know from someone who keeps them what the draw is...

REPTILEDAN88

ivytwine wrote: »

Hey ReptileDan, not being funny, what is the appeal of owning snakes for you?
Personally I can't understand why anyone would want one as a pet. They terrify me But I'd love to know from someone who keeps them what the draw is...

Same reason anyone else likes the things they do they just like them really I suppose, sometimes it might be the different colour morphs that get people interested in them other time people grow up with them and its a family thing like people who have farms or show casing dogs. I keep some big Alligator Snapping Turtles a Fiji Iguana, a Leopard Gecko, a Chinese Softshell Turtle, Fire Belly Toads too, and some Siamese Fighting fish too, Reptile keeping for me is not all about keeping venomous and even wanting to for me I would be the first to admit we need guidelines, protocols and licences in place for not only keeping but for in the case of possible invenomation and the risks are there theres no denying that when keeping animals like these.

Why is it they terrify you ?
Is it how they move, what they eat, the fact that some species get 20ft plus ?

ivytwine

REPTILEDAN88 wrote: »

Same reason anyone else likes the things they do they just like them really I suppose, sometimes it might be the different colour morphs that get people interested in them other time people grow up with them and its a family thing like people who have farms or show casing dogs. I keep some big Alligator Snapping Turtles a Fiji Iguana, a Leopard Gecko, a Chinese Softshell Turtle, Fire Belly Toads too, and some Siamese Fighting fish too, Reptile keeping for me is not all about keeping venomous and even wanting to for me I would be the first to admit we need guidelines, protocols and licences in place for not only keeping but for in the case of possible invenomation and the risks are there theres no denying that when keeping animals like these.

Why is it they terrify you ?
Is it how they move, what they eat, the fact that some species get 20ft plus ?

Thanks for replying The patterns are pretty I must say. I wouldn't have any issue with any of the other animals you mention, in fact I rather like lizards and turtles

For me it's a really primal fear, I can't really explain it. I have had very little contact with snakes (and I've kept it that way). I once had one around my neck on holiday and I was surprised at how it wasn't slimy and cold!

I think it's probably the things you mentioned, but I don't know, there must be more to it. Little snakes freak me out as well but I saw an anaconda in the zoo and I had to go to the other side of the reptile house, I felt so scared and disgusted

Maybe it's the fact that they're so different from mammals and even other reptiles?

Red Nissan

ivytwine wrote: »

Maybe it's the fact that they're so different from mammals and even other reptiles?

There is a school of thought that we are reincarnated, it starts with insects and progressively it moves up the scale until we are born as humans. The somewhat irrational fear we have for many predators may be due to a subconscious memory from being eaten by, spiders, birds of prey, snakes and so on.

ScumLord

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Can't remember if it was a wibbs post or another forum that Rottweiler's are naturally very friendly playful dogs but they look fierce and are usually trained to match their look.

Rottweilers aren't really used for training to specific tasks. You wouldn't see the police or army using them as their prefered dog. They use Belgian Malinois or alsatians. Rottweilers like many big dogs aren't all that aggressive, they seem to have a confidence due to their size that means they aren't as afraid of people. Small dogs like terriers were bred specifically to be fearless and aggressive rodent killers. They're much more dangerous dogs.

Sephichan wrote: »

A snake definitely couldn't kill both at the same time, at least not quickly and efficiently that neither made a sound,

That's how snakes kill. Once they grab you and coil around you can't make a sound as you can't even get air in your lungs to scream. They are very fast and very silent.

RoutineBites

Red Nissan wrote: »

There is a school of thought that we are reincarnated, it starts with insects and progressively it moves up the scale until we are born as humans. The somewhat irrational fear we have for many predators may be due to a subconscious memory from being eaten by, spiders, birds of prey, snakes and so on.

Think I've had my share of Boards for today.