Python escapes, strangles boys

[Hum]

CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick (AP) ? Autopsies will be performed Tuesday on two young boys who were strangled in their sleep by a python that escaped from a pet store in Canada and slithered through a ventilation system into an upstairs apartment.

The brothers, ages 5 and 7, were visiting the apartment of a friend above Reptile Ocean Inc., an exotic pet store in Campbellton, New Brunswick, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Const. Julie Rogers-Marsh.

The store owner, Jean-Claude Savoie, told the Global News television station that he didn't hear a sound during the incident and discovered the "horrific scene" when he went into his living room, where the two boys had been sleeping, on Monday morning.

Savoie said he saw the snake, pinned it down and put it in a cage.

He said the boys are the children of his best friend and were often at his apartment to visit his son.

Rogers-Marsh said the snake escaped from its enclosure sometime during the night and was believed to have made its way into the apartment through the ventilation system.

"It's believed the two boys were strangled by the snake," she said.

A friend of the boys was sleeping in another room and was unharmed, Rogers-Marsh said.

She said the snake was in the possession of police.

"It's very, very unusual and very tragic and difficult for everyone involved," Rogers-Marsh said.

Savoie said the python, which he has had for at least 10 years, had been kept alone in its enclosure and was not handled by anyone else.

The town's deputy mayor, Ian Comeau, said Reptile Ocean was licensed to operate and "everything was according to our bylaws, to the provincial guidelines."

The deaths of the boys have been "a shock ... it is unbelievable," Comeau said Monday evening. He said he saw alligators, crocodiles and snakes when he toured the shop with the fire department about two years ago.

source

[FloatingFatMan]

Oh wow, that's just... horrible... Those poor kids. :(

[_neutrino Veteran]

that would be a horrible thing to walk in on.

[Art3x]

Sounds very odd, why would a snake kill something it's not going to eat... and two of them at that.

 

Possible shenanigans here

[spacer]

While it's sad either way, I agree with Art3x. Why would the snake kill two boys and not try to eat them. Something doesn't smell right with this situation.

[Growled Member]

I hear ya. It does sound a bit fishy.

[DocM]

Sounds very odd, why would a snake kill something it's not going to eat... and two of them at that.

Possible shenanigans here

Large pythons and boas have been known to kill kids before and not consume them because they were too large for theit mouth so no, it's not unheard of.

Major wrongful death suit.

[Hum]

The two young boys killed by a python earlier this week were asphyxiated by the giant reptile, according to preliminary autopsy results released today.

 

Further tests are being done on the boys, but Royal Mounted Police Sgt. Alain Tremblay said, "We recognize that this has touched the hearts of people across the world and that people want to know how this could have happened."

 

"Our investigators are looking at all aspects of this tragic incident, and that will take some time," said Tremblay.

 

The autopsy results follow the disclosure by Canadian authorities that the python did not escape from the pet store below the apartment where the boys slept, as previously believed, but was a house pet kept inside the apartment where Noah Barthe, 4, and Connor Barthe, 6, were visiting friends.

 

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/python-victims-were-asphyxiated-autopsy-concludes-202212704.html?vp=1

[Tuishimi]

Sounds odd.  Snakes don't kill for pleasure as it puts them at risk, physically.  When they kill they eat, and they generally only kill and eat one thing at a time.

[Tuishimi]

Large pythons and boas have been known to kill kids before and not consume them because they were too large for theit mouth so no, it's not unheard of.

Major wrongful death suit.

 

I suppose so...  but two kids?  And is there evidence that they TRIED to swallow the kids?

 

[edit]

 

Either way, it stinks for the families involved.  :(  

[Growled Member]

The autopsy results follow the disclosure by Canadian authorities that the python did not escape from the pet store below the apartment where the boys slept, as previously believed, but was a house pet kept inside the apartment where Noah Barthe, 4, and Connor Barthe, 6, were visiting friends.

 

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/python-victims-were-asphyxiated-autopsy-concludes-202212704.html?vp=1

Couldn't criminal charges be brought against the snake's owner?

[DocM]

There was a news story yesterday about the snake trafficking, covering the issue of pythons & anacondas in Flirida all the way to companies that sell & ship by air critters including cobras and green mambas. The reporters ordered a cobra for $255.

Yeah, Snakes on a Plane. Where's Samuel L when you need him?