Posted on 08/05/2013 2:12:20 PM PDT by xzins
The article says it was a boa constrictor, which even full grown is a lot smaller than a giant Burmese python of the type that are causing problems in Florida.
This is what FoxNews is reporting:
MONTREAL, Quebec (AFP) – An escaped python killed two children in their sleep in eastern Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday.
The two young boys, aged five and seven, were sleeping in at a friend’s apartment late Sunday in the small town of Campbellton when they were surprised by the snake.
It had escaped from a pet store that specialized in exotic animals located on the ground floor of the building.
“The preliminary investigation has led police to believe that a large exotic snake had escaped its enclosure at the store sometime overnight, and got into the ventilation system, then into the upstairs apartment,” police said in a statement.
“It’s believed the two boys were strangled by the snake.”
The python had been recaptured and was being held by police, the statement added.
What if the boys were sleeping in the same bed?
Trying to figure out a way a snake may accidentally wrap around 2 kids without actually intending to.
I thought they already were doing a bounty on those beasties.
I saw one on a local mountain bike trail a few years ago. It was only maybe 5 feet but you could have knocked me over with a feather when I came around a turn and there the bright yellow monster was laying across the trail. Probably abandoned by the moron who owned it, like the dogs and cats you see out there.
I believe there might have been a snake in that apartment but that snake walked in on two legs.
It’s hard enough to get aspirin into an old dog or to use a paste wormer with a horse.
I cannot even contemplate how to “medicate’ a large snake!!!
I do recall another story in Florida where a Burmese python entered the home through an open second story window and strangled a sleeping child.
I think if the kids were in the same bed that a smaller snake could do it. In the case of the 2 year old child, the child was not heard to cry or scream. Wrapping them up while they sleep and then tightening means they make no sound. Prayers up for horrified parents.
When are we going to recognize that these are dangerous creatures and not pets!
Extremely not right.
They -only- constrict to kill and eat.
And it should be easy to autopsy since suffocation is not what actually kills their victim.
A murderer would not likely know that.
Every python in North America should be eradicated forthwith. Make them extinct, with a huge fine and jail sentence for anyone caught bringing another one in.
Exactly! Bullseye!
They only kill for food.
That’s one of the things wrong with this story.
Rock pythons and wild Burms can be gutsy but Boas are wimps.
Even the big Boas eat small prey like rabbits and rats.
They’re just not brave enough to attempt larger prey.
I hope the coroner doesn’t just look for the “expected” cause of death.
This sounds like the deed of a two legged beast to me.
Orly?
If I couldn’t sell a law like that, I make any owner subject to absolutely extreme penalties for any damages caused by his snakes, and I would require a foolproof identification tag system of some sort. And I’d impose a tariff on any exotic snake of such a huge amount that anyone wanting to exercise their right to pursue happiness would have to think long and hard about it.
If threatened they bite.
Why would ‘sleeping children’ make them feel threatened?
Well, you medicate a little bunny rabbit (they don't put up much of a fight!) and then...
Because the snake is highly reactive after an escape into an unknown environment and is not a thinking creature.
See post #42. Fox is reporting it to be a python.
Only if they’re not content to look for the alleged obvious cause.
Asphyxiation is not enough.
There is rupture damage to organs that must be present as well
A person could squeeze a kid to death but the internal organ damage would not be consistent with a constrictor.
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