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Cambodian boy has affection for cold-blooded python pal
AP ^ | 20 Feb 2008 | Ker Munthit

Posted on 02/20/2008 6:29:10 PM PST by BGHater

SETBO VILLAGE, Cambodia - Being responsible parents, rice farmer Khuorn Sam Ol and his wife might not be expected to be keen on having their child play with a 16-foot-long, 220-pound snake.

Yet they are unflustered that their 7-year-old son, Uorn Sambath, regularly sleeps in the massive coil of a female python, rides the reptile, kisses it and even pats it down with baby powder.

"There is a special bond between them," Khuorn Sam Ol explained. "My son played with the snake when he was still learning to crawl. They used to sleep together in a cradle."

The boy and his snake have become a tourist attraction in Setbo village, about 12 miles south of the capital Phnom Penh, as well as a source of wonder to the locals.

"People sometimes call the boy and the snake husband and wife," said Cheng Raem, a 48-year-old neighbor. "Maybe they were a couple from a previous life."

Boy and snake grew up together, ever since the python slithered into the family home when Uorn Sambath was three months old. His 39-year-old mother, Kim Kannara, discovered the reptile, then about the size of a thumb, coiled beneath a woven mat on their bed.

Khuorn Sam Ol took the snake away, releasing it in some bushes by a local river, but one morning two weeks later, found it back inside the house. He decided to keep it and named it Chamroeun - Progress, in English.

He came to believe the snake possesses a magical spirit that understands what he says and protects the family from illness.

The snake has its own 7-by-10-foot room with a spirit house at which Khuorn Sam Ol prays for the python to keep his family happy and healthy.

The snake is so familiar with his son - one of four children - that it would never hurt him, he said.

According to Nikolai Doroshenko, a Russian snake expert living in Cambodia, it's true that pythons rarely attack humans unless provoked.

But there is still an element of danger in allowing any young child to play with a large python with a grip powerful enough to break bones, said Doroshenko, who runs the Snake House guesthouse in the southwestern city of Sihanoukville, with its own collection of snakes and other reptiles.

Chamroeun - whom it takes three adults to carry - eats about 22 pounds of chicken meat every week, posing a heavy financial burden on the family, said Khuorn Sam Ol.

His meals used to be a spiritual burden as well, when they fed him live rats and chickens. Uneasy that they were breaking the Buddhist injunction against killing living things, Khuorn Sam Ol said the snake eventually answered his prayers for it to stop eating live animals.

Wildlife and police officials used to come by to try to take the snake away and put it in a zoo.

But they relented after seeing Uorn Sambath lovingly cuddling the reptile. They left with some pictures they took of the boy and the snake together, Khuorn Sam Ol said.

"I will not let anyone take her away from me, either. I love her very much," declared his son, Uorn Sambath, kissing his pet on the head.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: cambodia; python; snake
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To: BGHater; Bender2; ChristianDefender

Yup. That’s where I got it.


21 posted on 02/20/2008 7:24:31 PM PST by capydick ("History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid".)
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To: BlackVeil; BGHater
then, one day, springs a surprise

Well it is a surprise to the people anyway. Fortunately for me I outgrew my fascination with keeping lower life-form pets back in middle school when I saw what a hatchling baby snapping turtle or a garter snake can do to an aquarium in about 5 seconds, LOL

22 posted on 02/20/2008 7:59:50 PM PST by valkyry1
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To: BGHater

This is the first time I have read about a Darwin award contender before he became a contender.


23 posted on 02/20/2008 8:08:34 PM PST by chopperman
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To: JustaDumbBlonde

I believe the point is that pet dogs kill more people than pet snakes.


24 posted on 02/20/2008 8:14:16 PM PST by eclecticEel (oh well, Hunter 2012 anyone?)
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To: eclecticEel

Given the number of dog pets vs. 15-foot snake pets, I think the dogs are fairly safe. The comment was ridiculous.


25 posted on 02/20/2008 8:23:45 PM PST by JustaDumbBlonde (Don't do anything you wouldn't want to explain to the paramedics!)
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To: JustaDumbBlonde
The comment was ridiculous.

Living up to your handle

26 posted on 02/20/2008 8:38:35 PM PST by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government,)
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To: BGHater

It’s all fun and games until somebody gets eaten alive.


27 posted on 02/20/2008 8:41:19 PM PST by informavoracious ("Help me, Obama-Wan Kenyabi, you're my only hope!" do I need to point out this tagline is sarcasm?)
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To: from occupied ga

Oh, that is sooooo original. Either defend your comments or get lost.


28 posted on 02/20/2008 8:42:53 PM PST by JustaDumbBlonde (Don't do anything you wouldn't want to explain to the paramedics!)
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To: BGHater

I’ve no doubt this is going to end in a tragedy for the family. What kind of idiot will let his child sleep with a python that can swallow a pig whole?


29 posted on 02/20/2008 9:11:47 PM PST by Edward Watson (Fanatics with guns beat liberals with ideas)
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To: Bender2; BGHater; capydick

There’s actually real stories of men swallowed whole by these snakes in Southeast Asia. Humans by far are the cleanest among the preys they’ll catch... I certainly doubt the safety of the kid featured in this thread if that huge crawler get’s an improved appetite.


30 posted on 02/20/2008 9:33:07 PM PST by ChristianDefender (I Hear, I Forget. I See, I Remember. I Do, I Understand.)
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To: BGHater
What in the h*** is wrong with these parents. It is like the Hindenburg there

You mix oxygen and hydrogen around long enough, and it will combust.

31 posted on 02/20/2008 11:26:27 PM PST by valkyry1
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To: JustaDumbBlonde

You’re the one that chose the handle - apparently with some self knowledge. And why should I “defend my comments” to an obnoxious jerk (that would be you) who says that my comment is “ridiculous.” But because you are self confessedly “dumb,” try this. Roughly 500,000 - 800,000 people in the USA are bitten by dogs severely enough to require ER treatment. Approximately 80% of these are children. As far as I know there are no reported injuries from domestic constrictors.


32 posted on 02/21/2008 3:01:58 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government,)
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To: kinoxi
Show me the humor please.

The humor is in the unintended ironry (that's the best kind)

33 posted on 02/21/2008 3:07:02 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government,)
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To: BGHater

Total bull. There is no bond. The snake will one day do what snakes do. Boy, beware!


34 posted on 02/21/2008 3:20:39 AM PST by Leftism is Mentally Deranged
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To: BGHater

It’s just a matter of time before that python is hungry and kills him. Snakes aren’t like humans. Snakes EAT antyhing when they are hyngry. A small human would be EASY for this snake to eat. This little boy is flirting with being EATEN.


35 posted on 02/21/2008 6:19:59 PM PST by nmh (Mike Huckabee the "religious" humanist that pushes socialism! (Clinton/Carter combo))
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To: capydick

Is that REAL?

What did it eat?


36 posted on 02/21/2008 6:21:44 PM PST by nmh (Mike Huckabee the "religious" humanist that pushes socialism! (Clinton/Carter combo))
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