http://www.kptv.com/news/15925809/detail.html
Damn. I would have nightmares for years after that event. This dude is a stud. How would you react?
I love that they’re going to continue offering that snake for sale. I expected to see a picture of the snake with a Milhuse-shaped bulge in it…
That dude is awesome. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the officer had declined to treat the snake with such care.
Dayum.
It says the officer “put his own squeeze on the snake’s neck,” which leads to the question of how can you tell where a snake’s neck ends and its tail begins?
I would’ve waited until the snake choked her out then killed the snake, “I’m sorry ma’am, there was no other option…truly, truly sorry…”
I don’t get it. If they were trying to sell a dog that tried to eat the pet shop lady, it would be put down. But it’s okay to sell a snake that clearly has aggression? Frankly, I think he should have solved the problem by cutting the damn thing’s head off.
I would have started with the tail first, and pulled it away, like unwinding a yo-you. That’s usually easier.
The woman must have been pretty careless to let the snake get that far.
That snake would have been a pair of boots by now. Don’t kill it? My ass, don’t kill it. I would have tased it, stabbed it, shot it, burned it, parted it out, eviscerated it, and then probably nuked it to make sure it was dead.
That woman was nuts. Risking your life for a person? That’s in the job description. But a snake? Nope. Not a chance.
12 ft. A 12 ft long snake. Holy shit. I would have passed out. That guy has cojones.
I would have killed the snake. I totally agree with Airman Doors. And if that snake had got to her neck I’ll bet the woman would have changed her tune.
As for tasing it, that’s an interesting idea. I have no idea what the nervous system of a snake is like, would a “human” taser work?
or hot, now it’s starting to make sense.
Forget the taser. Let’s see if you can do the cooked hot dog with two forks and an electric cord on the snake instead. I wonder how big it would plump up?
This sounds like something that happened to me, x12 feet. My ball python Seymour was an overenthusiastic eater as a juvenile, and one time I put him in a feed cage with a mouse and a tissue the mouse had been using as bedding. Hyped up Seymour attacked the tissue. Derrrr. I took the mouse out and put it in the snake’s cage, then grabbed the snake to try and extricate the tissue as I didn’t want him to accidentally ingest any part of it. But the more I tugged, the tighter he gripped it. Eventually he let go, but then I realized I had a quandary: hyped-up hungry snake, still learning how to eat, and the scent of mouse all over my hands. When I picked him up to put him in the cage with the mouse, he literally was swinging around, mouth agape, desperate to get a grip on something. He got my index finger (effin’ HURT!), then dumbly proceeded to wrap around and constrict my wrist. “Seeeeeeeymour! Dumbass! I’m too big a meal for you!”
I didn’t want to pull him off, as those hundreds of needle-like teeth could break off and give us both an infection. I puffed air in his face, and he let go; I later learned that pouring rubbing alcohol on and around the mouth can work, too (though that’d be a BITCH on the snake-inflicted wounds).
So, in that scenario, I’d be reaching for alcohol (the rubbing kind, at least initially) or something else foul and strong-smelling.
I’d also bitch out the incompetent pet store–WTF?! Burmese pythons can be 25+ feet long, and do NOT have a mellow disposition (Seymour, on the other hand, will never be more than 5’ long, and like all ball pythons is shy and mellow–now that he’s an adult). A pet store with a 12’ burmese ought to know what to do in such a situation. Annnnd they ought to know better–it sounds to me like the snake was hungry and perhaps accustomed to eating in its own cage. To keep going after the employee suggests she smelled of rodent–silly if you have a corn snake, deadly if you have behemoths.
And the employee deserves her scars for asking to save the snake–pleeeeeeeeeeease!
Just the same as I don’t have to like the idea of Chicago cops killing a cougar - I wholeheartedly support killing any animal threatening a human life.
“I know you’d love to hear me apologize ma’am, but if it happened again, I’d cut the damn head off again just like I did now.”
Imagine having to go to some shopkeeper’s parents, husband or kids and explain that you let her die so the snake could live.
I have just failed reading comprehension. Where does it say that?
Having raised two boas from babies to over 6 feet (they moved on to other homes a few years ago, one to a breeding farm and the other is the beloved pet now of my former boss), I learned that when a snake attacks a human, it is 100% the human’s fault. Snakes don’t have enough brainpower to operate by much more than instinct, so it’s up to the human to learn the snake’s instinctual behavior and treat it accordingly.
So the woman was stupid. The snake is no more a killer than any other big snake, and if it deserves to be put down, then so does every other big python. It’s born and bred to kill its prey, and it’s not smart enough to learn that a human isn’t its prey if the human puts him- or herself in the wrong position when the snake is hungry.
I just hope the snake goes to a good home where the humans know what to do. Because a snake that big? Should never be handled by someone who doesn’t already know what they’re doing, simply because of situations like this one.
As careless as she probably was, I’ve never heard of a boa, even one 12 feet long, ever killing a human adult. That article is pretty sketchy, but I’d bet that she just didn’t want to hurt the thing, and called the cops to help pry it off. Even a 12-foot boa constrictor isn’t going to try to eat a grown human (they normally eat animals half the size)–it must’ve have felt threatened, or maybe was sick. Boas are usually very docile in captivity. Also, I wonder if it was really going after her neck. That could just be what the cop said, because so many people think constrictors choke their prey.
How would I react? With a thing like that, I’d nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure. 
While I probably would have killed the snake if the woman’s life was threatened, the situation is in no way comparable to a dog attack. As others said upthread, the snake is incapable to learning not to attack a human. You only buy or handle a pet like that if you know the risks and what you’re doing.
Dumbass woman. How much is a snake like that worth?
More than her life, apparently.