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Not amphibians but reptile inquiry

Alkylhalide

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So this has been all over the headlines here in new brunswick all week. Two young boys strangled by a python and left for dead after the snake escaped in the middle of the night.

I have 0 experience on snakes at all, and even it seemed fishy to me the second i heard about this story
You can read an article written that pretty much sums up what i was thinking here http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/08/07/python-experts-vexed-by-questions-about-new-brunswick-tragedy/

This is not what is being told on the media. At all. I actually searche "python" and this was the first link on google. This article was written because reptile experts are really wondering about this.

I was just wondering if anybody else can share some opinions on what this article has to say? It just doesnt make any sense to me on what happened and nobody woke up.. There is a huge piece of the puzzle missing

All over the news they are saying it was the pet shop owners fault, or the snakes fault.. And they have seized many illegal species(come onnew brunswick do you even know your own laws to begin with) they also claim that all species will be sent to zoos, i know what they do to illegal species that they get from pet shops... And it isnt the zoo. They arent telling us any truth in this matter...
 

Yahilles

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I know only basic about snakes, but the article says truth - it makes no sense that snake would kill a child without waking up another one, and even so, a python would then try to eat the creature it killed - they don't kill just for fun. And if the snake itself feels in danger, it bites first and tries to escape. Any of these situations would make hell of a noise.
 

Kaysie

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I don't buy it for many reasons. I don't have the gumption to site specific articles, but from what I've read:
-bite marks are minimal (or non-existent). There seems to be no straight answer on this.
-the owner tried to wake the children. If the children looked asleep, there's no way they were attacked by a snake. A large constrictor like that would've bitten, picked them up, moved them all around trying to get a good purchase to eat them.
-even 'gentle' rocks are assertive feeders. If it wanted to eat a child, it would have. It wouldn't have made exploratory bites and changed its mind.
-the coroner lists the cause of death as asphyxiation. There are certain obvious characteristics in the death of someone who has been crushed to death (such as that of a large constrictor), such as bruising, blown blood vessels (from skyrocketing blood pressure), etc. The children had none of these.
 

CJ1981

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I have no experience of keeping snakes but have several friends who keep and breed a variety of pythons/boas etc. Everyone of them has responded with a great deal of skepticism to this story.

Hopefully the truth will be known in the fullness of time.

Tragic events whatever the cause of death.
 

Alkylhalide

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It definately is a tragic death. And i feel bad for the owner of the snake just because regardless of what happened, this man had a child sleeping in the next room as well. I think he feels bad enough of what happened and is scared enough on the fact that this could of been his own child, to be scrutinized that this was his fault that it happened.. It was tragic but i dont think it was ultimately anyones fault 100%. The government knew he had these animals, he had them for a while. The parents of the children must of known that they had these animals(and if they didnt then i dont think i would known these people well enough to leave my children in their care) so to put blame on one person seems rediculous.

As far as the post about crushing force you are right and i didnt think of that. Thank you for your output because it is true if they had died due to the snake falling on them they would of seen obvious signs of trauma, i mean that snake weighed more then probably both of them combined..
 
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