10-foot-long python suffocates owner

[clarityat3am]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/02/11/killer.snake.ap/index.html

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- A 10-foot-long Burmese python killed its owner Sunday by coiling so tightly around him that the man could not breathe, authorities said.

"He was handling the snake and showing it to someone when the snake wrapped around his chest," said Rory Chetelat, spokesman for the Aurora Fire Department.

Firefighters said the owner was a big man in his 40s, Chetelat said. His name was not immediately released.

The snake weighed 75 to 80 pounds.

Six firefighters and police officers were needed to remove the snake and free the man.

"Two police officers tried to place their batons between the snake and the man's neck so he could breathe," police spokeswoman Kathleen Walsh said.

The man died of asphyxiation, said Bev Petry, spokeswoman for the Medical Center of Aurora in suburban Denver.

Firefighters later herded the snake into its cage and turned it over to animal control. Walsh said an Aurora ordinance bans owning pet snakes longer than 6 feet.


[This message has been edited by clarityat3am (edited 02-11-2002).]

 

[Ana]

Originally posted by clarityat3am:
coiling so tightly around him that the man could not breathe

Oh really?

But seriously... Poor guy *goosebumps all over*



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I Love controversy

Why am I not a vegetable??

 

[cass]

**cass looks at Monty** down boy!!
one of the pythons that hangs aroung here really really grew during his winter 2001 hibernation. My theory is if I leave him alone, he'll leave me alone. So far ,so good.It was the last day of the Year of the Snake yesterday. We have had so many snakes this summer.I ran into a local ecologist yesterday, told him of some of the encounters. He said we are very lucky to have the brown tree snake. When he was out of ear shot, my son said "would he like to have him?" He's a rather aggro snake.I like snakes, they scare me, but I like them.
I read that story in our local paper this morning. Grizzly end for the herpetologist in Denver.
Something awful led to a man's death near here yesterday, a logging accident. You just never know eh? Smell the flowers.