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COPS looking for a missing man were shocked to find him dead in his home — surrounded by over FORTY giant snakes. Many of the reptiles, including a 30ft anaconda and four 35ft pythons, were slithering free around the decomposing body when police entered snake fan Heiko Rieder's apartment in Straubing, Germany. A fire service spokesman said: "At least one was as thick as a human thigh."

A Miami man briefly wrestled with and ultimately used a knife to kill a Burmese python measuring 18 feet, 8 inches. That sets a state record for pythons captured or killed in the wild. The previous record measured 17 feet, 7 inches. Jason Leon was not hunting pythons but, while driving late at night recently in southeast Miami-Dade County, he and a friend spotted about 3 feet of snake protruding from the brush. Leon applied the brakes, climbed out of the car, grabbed the visible portion of the snake, and began hauling it onto the road.

Mr. Castro: 'Ello, I wish to register a complaint. (The owner does not respond.)Mr. Castro: 'Ello, Miss?Owner: What do you mean "miss"?Mr. Castro: (pause)I'm sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!Owner: We're closin' for lunch.Mr. Castro: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this Hugo what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.Owner: Oh yes, the, uh, the Venezulian Red...What's,uh...What's wrong with it?Mr. Castro: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's dead, that's what's wrong with it!Owner: No, no, 'e's uh,...he's resting.Mr. Castro: Look, matey, I...

The chance to traipse through Florida's Everglades in search of wild pythons up to 15 feet long has attracted nearly 700 thrill-seekers from throughout the county. The Sunshine State is offering cash prizes in the month-long “Python Challenge,” which begins tomorrow and is aimed at helping to control the exploding population of the non-native Burmese pythons, which have devastated Florida's eco-system. Anyone is eligible for the hunt ... cash prizes of up to $1,500 will be given to hunters who catch the largest and most pythons. The pythons that have nearly eradicated entire native species such as deer, bobcats and...

A MOTHER woke to find a 1.85m-long python wrapped around her two-year-old daughter yesterday morning. Tess Guthrie, 22, from Lismore on the far north coast, was woken by her cat hissing at 3.30am and discovered the python wrapped three times around her daughter Zara's arm, who was sleeping in the bed with her. At first she thought it was a dream but soon realised the horror and grabbed the snake by the head to pry it off her child, which caused the reptile to bite Zara three times on her left hand.

DAVIE, Fla.,- Florida wildlife officials are fighting Burmese pythons with a contest offering $1,000 and $1,500 prizes for catching the snakes. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission said the 2013 Python Challenge, which begins Jan. 12, will offer $1,000 to the winner who catches the longest Burmese python on public hunting lands and $1,500 for the participant who catches the largest amount of the snakes, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Thursday. Officials said Jan. 12 will feature a daylong open house on the pythons and other invasive species at the University of Florida's Davie campus. "The (Florida Fish and...

The photo of this Albino Burmese Python looks so real, Francesca Pitcher of North Star Cakes in Kent, U.K., was prompted to add this tagline: "****I DO NOT SELL SNAKES****. This photo is of a snake CAKE made to look like an Amelanistic Burmese Python for a birthday party." Yes, the snake is a fake. It's a fake snake cake.

Fargo Forum: A man who moved from Florida to Dilworth last summer admitted today that he allowed his 32 ball python snakes to freeze to death in an unheated storage unit in Glyndon last winter. “I just couldn’t find any place to put them,” 50-year-old Henry Ward Atherton Jr. said in Clay County District Court. Atherton pleaded guilty to all three charges against him: one felony and two misdemeanors counts of mistreatment of animals. USA Today: Sightings of raccoons are down 99.3%, opossums 98.9% and white-tailed deer 94.1%. According to Linda Friar with Everglades. National Park, park personnel have captured...

For the first time, scientists have put numbers to the toll Burmese pythons have had on native wildlife in the Everglades. But one word can sum it up: carnage. In the decade since the giant constrictors started showing up in significant numbers, mammals once among the most common in Everglades National Park have declined dramatically, according to a study published online Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.The study, based on night field surveys conducted over 10 years, found three animals had all but disappeared. Opossum sightings fell 98.9 percent. Raccoons — once so abundant park managers warned...

A gigantic python snake in Florida ate a 76-pound adult deer. The 16 foot long Burmese python was one of the largest pythons discovered to date in the sunshine state. According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission’s exotic species coordinator Scott Hardin, if these huge snakes aren’t killed, they could migrate northward. A government sanctioned shotgun blast stopped this snake from its potential journey to Atlanta or the Carolinas. And just how any inches around did the beast’s belly have to measure in order to covert a 76 pound Bambi into breakfast? 44 inches. Oh, and what is the average...

A huge Burmese python that had just consumed an adult deer was captured and killed in the Everglades Thursday, as South Florida continues to fight a snake infestation that arrived via the exotic pet industry. Contractors for the South Florida Water Management District found the snake on a tree island in western Miami-Dade County, according to the district. It was killed with a shotgun blast. The snake was 15.6 feet long, making it one of the largest ever found in the wild in South Florida, said Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The...

OXFORD -- Jury selection has been completed in the trial of a family pet python that killed a 2-year-old girl. In 2009, an 8-foot python snake killed Shaianna Hare as she slept in her crib in Sumter County. The girl's mother Jaren Hare and her boyfriend Charles Darnell, 34, are on trial for the child's death. The couple is facing manslaughter and child abuse charges. The trial, which is expected to last about a week, continues Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. Documents reveal the couple had not fed the 8-foot-6-inch Burmese python for a month before the accident and that the...

Charles "Jason" Darnell, 33, and Jaren Ashley Hare, 21, face third-degree murder and manslaughter charges stemming from the 2009 death of their daughter...Prosecutors will allege that "Gypsy," a 260 centimeter albino Burmese python, escaped from its glass tank, slithered down the hall and attacked the child in her crib. Darnell told detectives he found the snake in the hallway a day before the attack and had placed it back inside its tank and put a quilt on top of it. He also admitted that the snake had gotten out of the tank - which did not have a lock on...

10-Year-Old Bit Multiple Times; Shirt Covered In Blood A Halloween party took a horrifying turn in Utah last weekend when a giant python attacked a 10-year-old boy. The 15-foot, 140-pound Burmese python and its handlers were hired for a Halloween celebration last Saturday at Cyprus Credit Union in West Jordan. When Jaren Barker went to hold the snake, it turned on him and bit the boy multiple times. "I didn't it even see it coming," he said. "It just bit me." Jaren's parents said the boy's shirt was covered in blood, sending the other children into a panic of crying...

EAST GREENWICH, R.I.- Firefighters in East Greenwich, R.I., organized a horse trailer as a temporary home for an 18-foot Burmese python they carried from a burning building. Acting Fire Chief Peter Henrikson described the python as the largest snake he has ever seen. He said two firefighters were needed to make the rescue, although he kept his distance because he does not like snakes. "It was 18 feet long and, at the center, it was as big as a Frisbee," he told The Providence Journal. Firefighters learned the snake was on the premises when they arrived at Douglas St. Jean's...

Adolf Hitler’s foreign minister had plans to retire to one of the most picturesque locations in England following the planned German invasion, an author has claimedJoachim von Ribbentrop fell in love with Cornwall and was a regular visitor there, particularly to St Ives, where he intended to set up home...

BLOODY PEASANTS!!! HELP, HELP, I'M BEING REPRESSED BY THE SYSTEM!!!

CLEVELAND, Ohio --- Visitors to Cleveland Metroparks occasionally cross paths with a snake. But not a 9-foot-long, 18-pound Burmese python, which slithered Sunday into the Mill Stream Reservation's Paw Paw Picnic Area in North Royalton. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo officials are hoping the owner will reclaim it. "This snake didn't fall out of the sky," zoo spokeswoman Sue Allen said. "It either escaped from its owner, or was let go. Since it's difficult for us to accommodate exotic species, we're hoping its owners reclaim it." The python was found around 4:30 p.m. by a park visitor, who called for ranger...

The bear that recently killed a caretaker in a Cleveland suburb was the latest example of animal violence in a state that has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them. The death in Ohio and attacks elsewhere - including the maiming of a Connecticut woman by her friend's pet chimpanzee and a 2-year-old Florida girl squeezed to death by her family's python - highlight that the patchwork of federal, state and local laws on keeping dangerous wild animals at home has holes. After a friend's 200-pound...

in 1973 Monty Python predicts the US stimulus fiasco. this is the last 2 minutes of the Monty Python skit "Dennis Moore", it's funny and timely. the verbiage could be from today's headlines.