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Owners of exotic pets streamed into the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's amnesty day Saturday, turning over animals that have gotten too large, unruly or were just unwanted. The program was established so owners could give pets to the state rather than turn them loose in Florida's woods and swamps. Biologists point to the Everglades, where a growing population of Burmese pythons and other exotic snakes has taken hold. Wildlife officials say the population began when python owners let loose their pets after they got too big to handle...."Mostly they were reptiles," she said. "Snakes, lizards and turtles.".....

Have you ever given it much though about the phrase, “Lift Christ up with Praise�? Quite often you will here a pastor use this phrase as he instructs you to give glory to God though His Son. But have you ever really consider what the phrase means to you and and the significance of it? Give me a moment of your time and allow me to introduce you to something very few Christians have actually ever considered when hearing this phrase, “Lift Christ up with Praise�. Most people know the verse John 3:16 , many have even memorized it....

Fluffy, a 24-foot python at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is measuring more than 24 feet long and weighed more than 300 pounds-which sets the new world record for the Longest snake in captivity.It was sold to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium by Oklahoma snake breeder and herpetologist Bob Clark. Fluffy, a reticulated python, the Longest snake in captivity, was loaned to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in 2007, and they paid Clark $35,000 to put the python on permanent display. "It isn’t even my snake anymore, but I’ve still got a relationship with it. I’m still proud,” he said....

If it were still alive today, the largest snake ever known to have lived would feel right at home in South America's tropical rain forests. That's because the modern ecosystem contains many of the same plants that grew in the massive serpent's home turf some 60 million years ago, according to a new study detailing the earliest known "modern" rain forest. The study is based on more than 2,000 fossil leaves recently discovered in Colombia's Cerrejón coal mine—the same place where scientists had found fossils of Titanoboa cerrejonesis earlier this year. Many of the newfound plant fossils are of palm,...

Pit bulls are always earning notoriety as fighting dogs, attack dogs and all around vicious canines, but East Lincoln's Phil Hemby has one specimen of the square-headed breed earning a new name for itself. And that name is lifesaver. Well, not quite ... Shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, Hemby stepped out to take Slim, his 2-year-old pit terrier, for a joy ride in his Yamaha Rhino ATV around the Hemby Farms chicken houses off Townsend Drive. But the normally docile dog was in a rage - barking, snarling and driving him back - and wouldn't let him approach the machine....

Two brothers were just driving along N.C. 133, near Orton Plantation, on Wednesday morning when they noticed a large snake - different from those native to the area - in the roadway. “We thought it was a rattlesnake,” said Billy Ballard, of Oak Island. But a closer look and, later, an expert opinion revealed it was actually a boa constrictor that stretched at least 7 feet long. The snake had been injured, and a pool of blood circled around its head, Billy Ballard said. So, not wanting the snake to suffer, he and his brother Ronnie picked it up and...

Broward County's Senator Eleanor Sobel simply wants to outlaw reptiles of concern in Florida and make snake owners get a permit to keep them. But for those who can no longer care or choose not to, she also wants to make it easy to turn in the snakes to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. "I think amnesty is a good thing, 24-7, We'll take these snakes, if you want to turn them over," she explained. Photo: python being removed from home in Sumter County after toddler is found strangled. Last Saturday, during an amnesty program at Gatorland, 45 reptiles...

A snake handler's attempt to break the world record for living with the largest number of venomous vipers has ended after he was bitten on the foot by a deadly puff adder, requiring emergency surgery in hospital. Doctors fear they may have to amputate some of Johannes Swart's toes after paramedics had to convince him to leave the enclosure which he shared with 40 serpents including black mambas, boomslangs, cobras and puff adders. He was on day 37 of the record-breaking attempt and was reluctant to leave but medics feared he would go into cardiac arrest if he did not...

DELTONA, Fla. -- Snake owners say they love reptiles. The slithery creatures have made local headlines lately after an 18-foot Burmese python was found in the back yard of an Apopka home. But why do people make the potentially dangerous creatures as pets? A group of snake owners in Deltona said they just can't get enough of the reptiles. They're cold-blooded, sometimes poisonous, and depicted as evil, but Ron Doria, a white-collar medical sales director, can't get enough of his snakes. "They have such a bad rap of being something so vicious and so violent. It's not like that. It's...

SHELTON, Wash. - It’s been months since Daniel Greene, an epileptic, has had a dangerous seizure. He credits his python, "Red Rock." Greene said he’s trained the 5-foot-long snake to warn him when he’s about to have a seizure. The Shelton man claims the snake notices when his temperature rises, a sign he's about to have a seizure. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Greene is allowed to bring his snake, which is usually wrapped around his neck, into any public place. The ADA protects the rights of the disabled to have service animals in public places. According to the...

Killer rabbits attack snakes Sean Muir, TablelanderTuesday, September 15, 2009© The Cairns Post  A PAIR of rabid rabbits has been caught killing a series of snakes near Cairns.For three weeks Armando Del Manso believed his dog was responsible for the dead snakes showing up with teeth marks all over them on his East Barron property’s lawn each morning.But it turns out it was a pair of rampaging rabbits killing the snakes.Pictures: Cairns snakesThe 42-year-old boilermaker first made the discovery Tuesday night when he spotted the two wild rabbits attacking a king brown snake.“The snake was raised up in the air in...

A PAIR of rabid rabbits has been caught killing a series of snakes near Cairns.For three weeks Armando Del Manso believed his dog was responsible for the dead snakes showing up with teeth marks all over them on his East Barron property’s lawn each morning.But it turns out it was a pair of rampaging rabbits killing the snakes.Pictures: Cairns snakesThe 42-year-old boilermaker first made the discovery Tuesday night when he spotted the two wild rabbits attacking a king brown snake.“The snake was raised up in the air in the striking position and the two rabbits worked their way around him and...

Snake With Foot Found In China A snake with a single clawed foot has been discovered in China, according to reports. [Pic in URL] 14 Sep 2009 Dean Qiongxiu, 66, said she discovered the reptile clinging to the wall of her bedroom with its talons in the middle of the night. "I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw," said Mrs Duan of Suining, southwest China. Mrs Duan said she was so scared she grabbed a shoe and beat the snake...

Already squeezed by the invasion of the giant Burmese python, Florida now faces what one scientist calls one of the U.S. state's "worst nightmares." Africa's largest snake—the ill-tempered, 20-foot-long (6.1-meter-long) African rock python—is colonizing the U.S. state, new discoveries suggest. Six African rock pythons have been found in Florida since 2002. More troubling, a pregnant female and two hatchlings have been found, which means the aggressive reptiles have set up house. More dangerous than even Burmese pythons—which are known to eat alligators (alligator-python picture)—the African pythons are "so mean, they come out of the egg striking," said Kenneth Krysko, senior...

A snake with a single clawed foot has been discovered in China, according to reports. Dean Qiongxiu, 66, said she discovered the reptile clinging to the wall of her bedroom with its talons in the middle of the night. "I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw," said Mrs Duan of Suining, southwest China. Mrs Duan said she was so scared she grabbed a shoe and beat the snake to death before preserving its body in a bottle of alcohol. The...

Not that we're inclined to do so, but it would be a mistake to write off Van Jones as a one-off nutjob in the Obama administration. He signifies. The Obama team sought him out and signed him up for his job as green jobs commissar precisely because he is who he is.(video)or example, to Obama alter ego Valerie Jarrett pay tribute to Jones before a friendly audience earlier this year: "Oooh. Van Jones, alright! So, Van Jones. We were so delighted to be able to recruit him into the White House. We were watching him, uh, really, he's not that...

There was a lot of nervous laughter in the room. Some of it was mine. I was leading a church discussion on religious practices in Appalachia. The topic of the night was snake handling. The multitudes had not shown up; I think it was because of the subject. Just the thought of snakes, much less the thought of handling them, gives most folks cold chills. A number of people in the room alluded to Wendy Bagwell’s old story of singing in a West Virginia church. Bagwell described how people had begun to take snakes out of baskets and boxes while...

Days after a Comcast worker was bitten by a venomous green mamba snake, experts are still trying to find that snake after it escaped into the neighborhood where the worker was bitten. The poison from the green mamba briefly paralyzed the right side of the workers body before antivenin reversed the effects of the venom. The 44-year-old victim has not been named but is expected to recover and will likely be released from the hospital on Saturday. The snake attacked the worker as underground cable was being installed on the 2300 block of Taylor Street on Thursday. The snake may...

A Burmese python, that measured more than 17-feet, was captured and destroyed in Okeechobee County on Thursday. The male snake weighed 207 pounds and measured 26 inches in diameter. The reptile did not have a microchip, which is required for it to be a pet. "The capture of this large python shows us how well these snakes can thrive in the wild and create a dangerous situation after illegal release or escape," said commission chairman Rodney Barreto. "It also illustrates why the FWC is partnering with other agencies to implement python control measures in South Florida. We will continue to...

A Southern California family , who lives near Lake Elsinore... The first animal control officer who saw the size of the critter had to call for backup. Two officers then wrangled the 50-pound snake into a truck and took it to a shelter. the Burmese python's presumed owner, a long-distance trucker, contacted the agency. Welsh says the owner entrusted his pet to his brother while he was away and the snake somehow escaped.

EUGENE, Ore. - The owner of a 10-foot-long Burmese python found on a Eugene-area road has come forward to claim it. And Lane County Animal Services says the snake owner says he plans to give the snake to someone who can care for it better. The snake story began Tuesday night when a 16-year-old driver with a learner's permit accidentally backed over the snake as he and his father tried to figure out what was in the road. Police were called and Officer Lori Barnes grabbed hold of the reptile to keep it from slithering away. A veterinarian checked the...

New York - The last thing laundry workers in Manhattan expected to see was a 1.2-metre snake slithering in the dirty wash. But an employee of Gracie Laundry in Manhattan got a shock when she spied a boa constrictor nestled among the bags, NY1 broadcaster reported Wednesday. "At first I thought it was a joke," Eddie Huerta, a friend of the worker who made the discovery, was quoted as saying. He called the city's animal control offices. An Animal Care and Control official surmised that the 4kg boa, who was nicknamed Slither, had been abandoned as are many exotic pets,...

Nobody has killed more Burmese pythons in the Everglades than Bob Hill. Long before the state launched its new python patrol, Hill was quietly -- aside from judicious employment of a 12-gauge -- racking up a count of constrictor carcasses likely to stand for some time. The patrol has bagged six in three weeks. Hill figures he's ``dispatched'' 35 this year alone, and he's been in the dispatching business for the South Florida Water Management District since 2004. That was the first time a rattled boss rang him from the L-67, a flood-control levee deep in the Everglades. Hill, a...

Wilbur, a four-year-old tabby, was devoured after straying into a nearby garden in Brislington, Bristol, where the Burmese python was lurking. The cat's owners, Martin and Helen Wadey, heard "blood-chilling cries" and rushed to the neighbouring property to help. But after getting no reply from the house they were powerless to save Wilbur. The snake's "huge bulge" was eventually scanned and RSPCA officers confirmed that micro-chipped remains were inside. An RSPCA inspector later issued the snake's owner, Darren Bishop, with a verbal warning about appropriate housing and care requirements. Now Mr and Mrs Wade are calling for a change in...

THE EVIDENCE IS HERE: This document contains over 60 pages of evidence and analysis proving Barack Obama’s use of a little-known and highly deceptive and manipulative form of “hack” hypnosis on millions of unaware Americans, and reveals what only a few psychologists and hypnosis/NLP experts know.

Snake 'befriends' snack hamster Aochan, the snake 'seems to enjoy' being with Gohan, the hamster A rodent-eating snake and a hamster have developed an unusual bond at a zoo in the Japanese capital, Tokyo. [Pic in URL] Their relationship began in October last year, when zookeepers presented the hamster to the snake as a meal. The rat snake, however, refused to eat the rodent. The two now share a cage, and the hamster sometimes falls asleep sitting on top of his natural foe. "I have never seen anything like it," a zookeeper at the Mutsugoro Okoku zoo told the Associated...

They emerge, improbably huge and menacing, from the fetid quagmire which they have made their home. And when these cold-blooded killers hunt, nothing is safe. Cats, dogs, deer, even the terrifying alligators that used to rule supreme in these morasses, have fallen prey to a creature that can grow to gargantuan proportions. And they will kill humans, too. Just last week, one 17ft monster strangled a two-year-old as she slept in her cot. It sounds like an urban myth, or the plot of a lurid B-movie. But this particular horror story is real. For many, too real.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- A Palm Coast man bitten by a snake at Wal-Mart on U.S. 1 South in St. Augustine Tuesday afternoon is in critical condition after having a bad reaction to antivenom medication. According to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office report, a pygmy rattlesnake bit Jeriel Joiner, 27, on the hand as he reached under a display of ferns to retrieve a baby bottle that had fallen. Witnesses said the snake was still on Joiner's pinky finger when he pulled his hand out. Jeremy Robshaw of St. Johns County Fire-Rescue said firefighters arrived at the garden center...

The Burmese python can grow longer than 20 feet, produce several dozen offspring in a litter and devour small children and pets. In North Carolina, they have a new natural enemy: the lawmaker. There could be thousands of exotic, deadly snakes slithering loose in the state with the potential to harm not just people and animals, but entire ecosystems. But the legislature is likely to give final approval next week to a bill that would restrict the ownership and prevent the escape of venomous and large constrictor snakes, as well other dangerous reptiles. The bill adds provisions to a law...

Bucks County may have another snake scare. Yesterday around noon, an 8-to-10-foot snake was seen slithering across Snowball Drive in Levittown. Or at least that's what a witness told police. In June of 2007, in Bristol, about five miles south, a nine-foot albino python was caught, and a 12-foot boa constrictor or python was reportedly hiding in a crawl space - and possibly eating newborn kittens. The latest snake, described as resembling a python, went into a small wooded area near the intersection with Shell Flower Road, perhaps headed toward Mill Creek, according to the witness. "We went out and...

Kenneth Catania has a new weirdo to add to his collection -- a fish-eating snake that is so clever it can trick its prey into swimming right into its mouth. Catania is a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University who is becoming a bit of a legend in his field because he specializes in figuring out why some animals are just so strange. Like the star-nosed mole that is ugly enough to scare its own mother. There's a reason why the hamster-sized star nose mole has a snout with 11 pairs of pink appendages that form a fleshy star. The mole, rarely...

The decomposed snake head that a Clifton Park, NY man discovered in his side portion of broccoli has reached the end of its strange, unappetizing journey—for now. Since Consumerist broke the story back in May, there have been no leads. With no leads in the case, the snake is chilling in a refrigerated State Police evidence locker until a witness comes forward, or the statute of limitations for the case is up. The statute of limitations would be three years for a crime alleged to be a public health hazard, five years if it's a felony, a local law enforcement...

IDF developing battlefield robot snake A robot snake, capable of recording video and sound on the battlefield, is on the way to join the the IDF's hi-tech arsenal. According to a Channel 2 report - click here to watch the clip - the spying robot, which is about two meters long and covered in military camouflage, mimics the movements and appearance of real snakes, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks and buildings, while at the same time sending images and sound back to a soldier who controls the device through a laptop computer.

The population of Burmese pythons in Florida's Everglades may have grown to as many as 150,000 as the non-native snakes make a home and breed in the fragile wetlands, officials said on Thursday. Wildlife biologists say the troublesome invaders -- dumped in the Everglades by pet owners who no longer want them -- have become a pest and pose a significant threat to endangered species like the wood stork and Key Largo woodrat. "They eat things that we care about," said Skip Snow, an Everglades National Park biologist, as he showed a captured, 15-foot (4.6-meter) Burmese python to U.S. Interior...

What was once sci-fi is becoming reality on the battlefield. Still got a few kinks to work out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – A man said he saved his dog's life after sucking venom from a rattlesnake bite out of the animal's nose. Bobby Jenkins said he began feeling ill after getting his dog, Tank, to a veterinarian. He went to the hospital and received a dose of antivenin. In all, Jenkins needed four vials of antivenin at a cost of $3,500 per vial. Meanwhile, Jenkins said his dog's head swelled up to three times its normal size. Tank had been bitten after running under some equipment on the family ranch.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Missouri legislators spent about an hour in the dark Tuesday because of a power outage at the state Capitol , and a snake took all the blame and paid the price. The electricity went out at noon while lawmakers were debating legislation and scores of schoolchildren were touring the building. Several people were stuck in elevators, but Capitol Police Chief Todd Hurt said they all were freed within 20 minutes and no injuries were reported. Power was back on after about an hour. The problem was a reptile that was in the wrong place at the...

This afternoon I happened to look out the back and saw something black and long in the middle of the yard. I just mowed yesterday so I knew the yard was free of sticks and such. Turns out it was a big black snake! He isn't a rattler, does not look loke a water moccasin or a black snake. What the heck kind of snake is he? He has the triangular head which means he is a bad one, but I can't place his breed. Anyway, photography being as dangerous as it is, he got wrecked up some which is...

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. - T.G.I. Friday's said a severed snake head found in a dish of broccoli at one of its upstate New York restaurants was likely planted in the meal. Diner Jack Pendleton said he found the snake head the size of his thumb mixed in with his vegetables at T.G.I. Friday's in Clifton Park on Sunday. The Ballston Lake man said he thought at first it was a mushroom.

PHOENIX -- Banner Poison Control Center treated four patients this past weekend for rattlesnake bites. There have been eight victims in the past week. Patrick Hotchkiss of Quartzsite, Ariz., was one of the victims. He had just stepped off his porch Sunday afternoon when he was struck. "I felt two sharp things, sort of akin to piece of broken glass that snaps off," said Patrick Hotchkiss, from his hospital bed at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital. Hotchkiss said this particular snake was about 2-and-a-half feet long and did not rattle prior to striking. "I should've been more vigilant. Usually I am,"...

An Australian airliner was grounded after four baby pythons escaped from their container in the aircraft's hold. The snakes, just six inches long, were among 12 Stimson's pythons being flown from Alice Springs to Melbourne. At first it was thought the reptiles may have been eaten by the other snakes, but this was discounted after they were weighed on landing. Passengers were transferred to other aircraft. The jet was fumigated but the snakes' bodies are yet to be found.

A Kenyan man bit a python which wrapped him in its coils and dragged him up a tree during a fierce three-hour struggle, police have told the BBC. The serpent seized farm worker Ben Nyaumbe in the Malindi area of Kenya's Indian Ocean coast at the weekend. Mr Nyaumbe bit the snake on the tip of the tail during the exhausting battle in the village of Sabaki. Police rescued Mr Nyaumbe and captured the 13ft (4m) reptile, before taking it to a sanctuary, but it later escaped.

The discovery of fossilised remains belonging to the world's largest snake has been reported in Nature journal. Titanoboa was 13m (42ft) long - about the size of a London bus - and lived in the rainforest of north-east Colombia 58-60 million years ago. The snake was so wide it would have reached up to a person's hips, say researchers, and was estimated to have weighed more than a tonne. Green anacondas - the world's heaviest snakes - reach a mere 250kg (550lbs).

There is some encouraging data in a new Pew media poll. It gives us strong reason to believe we can turn things around if we can stop the so- called Fairness Doctrine. Pew found 4 groups of news consumers: those who go to all sources, 23%, only Internet news gatherers 13%, only old media news consumers 46%, and the clueless who don’t care 18%. The “newspapers only” readers dropped 7 points to 27% since 2006 which is good news. But the really good news is: for the first time the number of both online and radio news (outlets we have...

This could ruin their reputation: President-elect Barack Obama Tuesday evening attending a dinner party at the home of conservative columnist George Will, attended by fellow conservatives William Kristol and David Brooks.

Do you need Obama coverage 24 hours a day? In several markets, Comcast cable is launching an all-Obama, On Demand channel. (In D.C., it's channel 963). Leading up to Inauguration, the channel will offer a number of Obama-related programs, according to a release: "Barack Obama’s most famous speeches to date, from his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 through his election night victory speech in Grant Park; Barack Obama biography; Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention speech; a tour of the White House; and the history of Air Force One."

As Barack Obama builds his administration and prepares to take office next week, his political team is quietly planning for a nationwide hiring binge that would marshal an army of full-time organizers to press the new president's agenda and lay the foundation for his reelection. The organization, known internally as "Barack Obama 2.0," is being designed to sustain a grass-roots network of millions that was mobilized last year to elect Obama and now is widely considered the country's most potent political machine. Organizers and even Republicans say the scope of this permanent campaign structure is unprecedented for a president. People...

IT WOULD be enough to put phobia sufferers in their grave - 14 baby carpet pythons slithering around in your bedroom. Esther Honegger was "horrified" when she found the baby snakes in her Fannie Bay home. "I thought 'Oh my God, how many of them are there?'," she said. "I hate snakes and as I walked backwards and forwards I would see another one." "They were everywhere - there was one curled around my bedhead, another around the bottom of the chair, and when I went outside there was one in the hallway, another on the (stair) railing and another...

Current Article Hospitals in Hawaii to Obama: You Were Not Born Here! By admin on Dec 2, 2008 in Blogging, Offbeat, Politics, Social Media  Supposed Conspiracy Claim Turns REAL on Obama It is becoming painfully obvious that we may very well have a criminal President in 2009.  No this isn’t a joke. What I speak of is the curious developments in the supposedly racist, biased, dumb,  as well as insane case of where Obama was born.  Why the Barack Obama Birth Certificate Issue Is LegitimateA strange development indeed is how it is that every time Barack Obama or a...

A guest at a Dutch hotel got a nasty surprise when she found a live eight-foot snake lurking in the toilet: A Burmese python