Escaped snake kills 5 & 7 year old kids

[mako88sb]

What a horrible tragedy:

http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/08/05/escaped-snake-kills-two-kids-in-new-brunswick

My condolences to the family. Never really cared for the thought of big snakes as pets.

[Wolferz]

Escaped or set loose?:down: Either way, it never should have happened.:-?

[BossMark]

Just been reading about on sky news, very sad indeed my deepest condolences to the boys family.

[Jimbuna]

Escaped or set loose?:down: Either way, it never should have happened.:-?

Could well end up in the courts on grounds of negligence.

A terrible tragedy :nope:

[Platapus]

In reading the news stories, it was pretty grim.

[TarJak]

Apparently the story has now changed. The snake turns out to have been kept in the apartment above the shop. Something tells me that the story may change again. I'm no herpatologist but pythons rarely move about to kill unless they are hunting for food and then would not kill two meals at once.

My take on this tragic story is that either the children were messing around with the snake or someone else wrapped in around their necks. Pure speculation on my part I know. But when I first read the story it sounded suspicious.

[Platapus]

someone else wrapped in around their necks.

Using a snake as a strangulation ligature?


That thought crossed my mind too. I hope they kept the dead snake's body as evidence.

[Oberon]

My take on this tragic story is that either the children were messing around with the snake or someone else wrapped in around their necks. Pure speculation on my part I know. But when I first read the story it sounded suspicious.

Something does seem a bit odd about this story, I agree, pythons are not usually aggressive unless starved or ill.

[Platapus]

As I understand it, when Pythons are threatened, they either slither away at a surprising speed or they bite. I am not sure pythons use their constriction as a defense weapon.

[Platapus]

Curiouser and curiouser

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/world/americas/canada-snake-deaths/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

... the snake was somehow able to crawl through a vent into the building's ductwork. It was above the living room, where the boys were sleeping, when the ceiling fell in....

CBC reported that the python was between 11 and nearly 15 feet long and weighed more than 99 pounds.

15 foot long 100 pound snake falls through the ceiling and no one hears anything?:hmmm:

[Skybird]

A German snake and python specialist is wondering a bit, too. He says it is believable that the snake fell from the ceiling/the ventilator shaft and onto the ground, was in shock, and highly aroused, the boys woke up and raised - then the snake only sees thermal hot spots, and snaps at the first. If then the other boy in darkness stumbled over the body of the reptile or its tail, it could be that the snake immediately attacked him, too, and strangled both boys simultaneously, because pythons react extremely aggressive if they fight or eat and get touched in the lower quarter of their body then (the tail). He said that everybody handling pythons knows that one should not touch their tails when they eat.

However, this expert says he wonders why the police report, as far as he knows, mentions no surfical injuries of the bodies from the teeth, and why there was no saliva. a 5m python already would have quite long teeth, and the snake attacks by biting first and the wrangling its body around the victim. This could leave long, bloody scars on the head of the victim, for example, and then there should also be saliva, even more so when the python tried to swallow one boy, which might work with the head, but not with the shoulders - so the boy would have gotten spit out.

Also, if it were obvious that the python killed the boys, one wonders why they do an autopsy. It seems they are not certain.

[Tribesman]

Also, if it were obvious that the python killed the boys, one wonders why they do an autopsy. It seems they are not certain.
Death from external causes usually triggers an autopsy.
Strangulation is an external cause of death so one would wonder if they didn't do an autopsy.

[Jimbuna]

Agreed....there are certainly enough differing sets of possible circumstances to cause suspicion.