Officials: Escaped pet python strangled Fla.
child
OXFORD, Fla. - A 2-year-old girl was strangled by a
12-foot Burmese python Wednesday inside a central Florida home,
authorities said.
The snake was a family pet, not one of a fast-growing population
of nonnative pythons that has been spreading in the wild in
southern Florida.
Lt. Steve Binegar, of the Sumter County Sheriff's Office, said
the toddler was strangled by the snake in the town of Oxford, about
50 miles northwest of Orlando. Pythons can kill by wrapping
themselves around a human. Paramedics said the girl was dead when
they arrived at about 10 a.m. EDT. Authorities did not release the
girl's name.
Sheriff's officials told the Orlando Sentinel that the snake
broke out of a glass aquarium overnight, went to the girl's bedroom
and attacked her. The owner found the snake wrapped around the girl
and stabbed it while others called 911. It wasn't immediately known
if the snake was killed. The newspaper said the snake slithered
away and was missing.
Jorge Pino, a spokesman with the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission, said that pythons are not native to
Florida and can easily grow to 10 or 12 feet long. He also said
owners need a license to possess a python in the state.
Some owners have freed pythons into the wild and a population of
them has taken hold in the Everglades. One killed an alligator and
then exploded when it tried to eat it. Scientists also speculate a
bevy of Burmese pythons escaped in 1992 from pet shops battered by
Hurricane Andrew and have been reproducing since.
"It's becoming more and more of a problem, perhaps no fault of
the animal, more a fault of the human," Pino said. "People purchase
these animals when they're small. When they grow, they either can't
control them or release them."
--AP