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Roadside Mower Kills 16-Foot Python (Florida)
Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)12/21/07
Vero Beach: For the second time in two years, a 16-foot python has been found in the wild west of Vero Beach -- this time killed by a large roadside bush mower on a canal bank along 58th Avenue.
On Friday, Jesse Parker was mowing for the county along a large canal south of 12th Street and hit what he thought was bricks.
"When I backed up, a head popped up. It was huge," said Parker, who works for a company that does contract work for the county.
The snake died within minutes.
"I had only seen something like that on Animal Kingdom" on television, Parker said.
"It is lucky this happened," Vero Beach Animal Control Officer Bruce Dangerfield said Monday. He said the snake could have grown 25- to 30-feet long.
Though pythons are constrictors capable of killing humans, small ones are legally sold in pet stores.
Dangerfield said he thought the snake originally was a pet that grew too big and was released into the outdoors.
"There is plenty for them to eat out there" and warm canal waters to sustain the tropical creatures during the cold, he said.
The wildlife officer planned to let the snake's remains decay in the canal across the street from the First Church of God.
"The buzzards can take over," he said.
This is the 20th large python or boa Dangerfield has found in the past decade in Indian River County. Yet it is among the largest, comparable to a 16-foot python found live two years ago on the edge of Fourth Street, near 58th Avenue.
"I had to use both my hands to get around its neck," Dangerfield of that snake. With the help of bystanders and deputies, the snake was put in a body bag and ultimately donated to a serpentarium near St. Cloud.
Ilka Daniel, with the Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County, suggests people with large snakes should contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission or the Humane Society about what to do with them, rather than dump them in the wild.
Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)12/21/07
Vero Beach: For the second time in two years, a 16-foot python has been found in the wild west of Vero Beach -- this time killed by a large roadside bush mower on a canal bank along 58th Avenue.
On Friday, Jesse Parker was mowing for the county along a large canal south of 12th Street and hit what he thought was bricks.
"When I backed up, a head popped up. It was huge," said Parker, who works for a company that does contract work for the county.
The snake died within minutes.
"I had only seen something like that on Animal Kingdom" on television, Parker said.
"It is lucky this happened," Vero Beach Animal Control Officer Bruce Dangerfield said Monday. He said the snake could have grown 25- to 30-feet long.
Though pythons are constrictors capable of killing humans, small ones are legally sold in pet stores.
Dangerfield said he thought the snake originally was a pet that grew too big and was released into the outdoors.
"There is plenty for them to eat out there" and warm canal waters to sustain the tropical creatures during the cold, he said.
The wildlife officer planned to let the snake's remains decay in the canal across the street from the First Church of God.
"The buzzards can take over," he said.
This is the 20th large python or boa Dangerfield has found in the past decade in Indian River County. Yet it is among the largest, comparable to a 16-foot python found live two years ago on the edge of Fourth Street, near 58th Avenue.
"I had to use both my hands to get around its neck," Dangerfield of that snake. With the help of bystanders and deputies, the snake was put in a body bag and ultimately donated to a serpentarium near St. Cloud.
Ilka Daniel, with the Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County, suggests people with large snakes should contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission or the Humane Society about what to do with them, rather than dump them in the wild.