Posted on 08/01/2007 6:45:24 AM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0
CHARLOTTE (AP) — A 15-month-old boy suffered minor injuries when he was attacked by a 4-foot ball python in a Mecklenburg County park here.
Christine Abdelmonem had taken her son, Adam, to get a better look at some ducks waddling nearby in Freedom Park on Monday. As she lowered the boy to the ground, she felt a tug and saw the snake wrapped around his leg.
She screamed for help and two maintenance workers rushed over. One hit the nonvenomous snake with a shovel before trapping it in a bucket, said Karla Thornhill of Mecklenburg Park and Recreation.
Adam was treated at Carolinas Medical Center for bite marks on his leg.
"When I pulled it off, he was fine," Abdelmonem said. "I wasn't."
John Calchera, a pet store owner in nearby Pineville, took in the constrictor snake. He thinks it may have been abandoned by a pet owner and that it won't survive being beaten.
"It's a totally harmless thing," he said. "Why attack a harmless thing?"
snapping turtles taste awesome tho. we pulled one out of a lake a couple years back when fishing (i never catch fish, always wierd stuff) cooked that guy up in a stew. yummy.
we don’t have to deal with any poisonous snakes up here fortunately. we’ve got one type of snake that looks like an endagered species that’s supposed to have left MI, we found him a couple times, but by the time we found pics to compare him to, he was gone.
If you think a toddler is harmless, it’s because you’ve never met Vlad in real life :-).
I’m really not liking this reptile thing.
I’m assuming you are still alive, therefore the ‘adventure’ ended well?
We live in NC and we found a 4 and 1/2 foot Eastern King Snake on our cellar steps last week. We live in an old farmhouse with outside access to the basement. He was curled up there on the brick steps having an afternoon rest. They are not supposed to be aggressive but he wasn’t happy to be disturbed.
When is the last time somebody successfully reasoned with a slithering creature?
“But our main problem is snapping turtles. Those things can be REALLY mean. Especially if you’ve got a mama protecting her nest.”
Snapping turtles ( or any turtle I know of) don’t protect their eggs. They lay their eggs in warm soil, cover them and leave. Gaters do, not turtles.
Too cold in MI for snakes. :-) And for me too. LOL
Well, the ones we have at our lake most certainly protect their nests.
This copperhead was not initially happy with my shovel. I whacked it once as he continued to strike it, then I managed to toss him out of the garage. Then he crawled back UNDER the closed garage door, and hid. That is when I brought in someone else with a sharp shovel, while I held a 9mm handgun just in case.
“It’s a totally harmless thing,” he said. “Why attack a harmless thing?”
Harmless? Pythons are constrictors - they hug you to death!
What idiotic statements.
As it is, the python must’ve been quite young, being only 4 ft. When it grows to 15 ft, it will not be harmless!
LOL!!!
Thanks from all the GS lovers out there.
Well they are not deadly, not dangerous, and not African. Most are bred in the USA. They are docile and grow to 4-5 feet, very rarely 6 feet. If seriously harrassed they’ll bite (quite unlike canine pets /s)
Someone let it go or it escaped (like dogs and cats get lost or abandoned).
As for exotic, ball pythons and the colubrids are actually quite common as pets. Ask a pet shop who comes in to buy the white mice- 90% are bought by snake owners to live feed their snakes.
People have strong emotions toward snakes, which makes this story work. A child being nipped by an abandoned kitten would not be a story even if the kitten had rabies. Snake stories go national in an hour though.
When it grows to 15 ft,
maybe a reticulated or a carpet python.
balls get up to 5 feet or so, rarely 6- never 15 feet.
Look up ball python or royal python.
Agree. Sometimes hysterics only make it worse.
As with your “bee” example. I’ve learned they’re basically harmless unless you whack at them and freak out. Wasp-types are the worst but still you can be around them and avoid problems.
I’ve never been bitten by a snake, but I’ve been bitten by toddlers :-).
OK, thanks for the info. I wondered if I was wrong about the specific species.
What is their native habitat?
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