Infant and python, isn't this a recipe for disaster.

[MusclesMarinara]

One of the craziest stories were the 2 Canadian boys who were suffocated next to each other by the pet African rock python .
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_New_Brunswick_python_attack

Oddly enough.. this was my exact lunch time conversation yesterday. Weird.

 

[dissectingaorticaneurysm]

Holy shit lol

Nobody, under any circumstance, listen to this guy about big snakes.


It was probably well fed at the time but that's hardly the issue here. Since you're pulling the snake owner card, I had two hefty Burmese and a fully-grown Red Tailed and I'm quite familiar with what snakes even half the size of that monster are capable of. Ever had yours excitedly feel your pulse and give a powerful (i.e. not close to their full power) reflex squeeze? Do you regularly grab your pythons by the head and toss them around? How about getting struck at by a big one over a feeding misunderstanding? That seemed like a pretty open house, I wonder what happens when something wanders in, that the monster could associate with prey, and crosses the heat signature of the boy. What if the kid was just touching another animal? And I wonder what happens if the (totally thinkable) unthinkable happens...good luck uncoiling that fucker.

I wasn't trying to tell people that wrapping your snake around a baby is a good idea. I was countering the notions here that the snake perceives the baby as prey and would "snap" and eat him. The comparisons to pit bulls attacking their owners are especially silly. Yes, snakes do occasionally attack their owner but their behavior is for the most part completely predictable if you read the tells. A baby is not going to know, but I'm sure their parents do. Considering this practice is common in Indonesia yet I never hear about an epidemic of killer pet pythons there I would say the risk is overstated.

The last publicized python death occurred in Florida when a Burmese strangled a 2 year old in her crib. It turned out the owner neglected the snake and hadn't fed it in over a month.

 

[Otto!]

Having kids is not for everyone.

Having kids for lunch though, sounds like something a snake would do.

 

[brokenjaw]

Maybe the snake was/is a pet since it hatched? I'm guessing it's not eating the kid because it's had its lunch or doesn't like his scent or something like that. I saw a video few years back about a python that didn't want to eat a live rat that was thrown into his cage as food. kept him around as it's pet/bro. Snakes can be picky, I guess.

 

[Lord Commander Palis]

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That's a toddler not a infant you cumquat.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

What if the kid was just touching another animal?

That is how those two boys up here in Canada ended up dying - they had gone to a petting zoo and the escaped python got the scent of the deer that they had been touching.

 

[Mael]

I wasn't trying to tell people that wrapping your snake around a baby is a good idea. I was countering the notions here that the snake perceives the baby as prey and would "snap" and eat him. The comparisons to pit bulls attacking their owners are especially silly. Yes, snakes do occasionally attack their owner but their behavior is for the most part completely predictable if you read the tells. A baby is not going to know, but I'm sure their parents do. Considering this practice is common in Indonesia yet I never hear about an epidemic of killer pet pythons there I would say the risk is overstated.

The last publicized python death occurred in Florida when a Burmese strangled a 2 year old in her crib. It turned out the owner neglected the snake and hadn't fed it in over a month.

I'll weigh in as a snake owner for over 10 years. I get your reply, and its very true a satiated snake is near impossible to feed. I've always been trying to grow my snakes as huge as they can, and routinely give them as much as they can feed, if it requires squeezing in mice of smaller size after they consume their regular rabbits of X size.
However, there still is a danger, due to what i've experienced in the past. Had me a very huge adult ball python that was consuming 2 large rats, his staple meal for years. After those 2 rats, nothing would make him eat anything further, and his stomach looked like it was stretched to the max. This went on for years, till one fine day he decided to up and eat another.

Point being, we cannot look into the snakes stomach to see how its meal has digested, or whether its senses tell it that its hungry. All we do is to estimate, real their behavioural language, and judge if its ready to eat or not. 99% of the time you'd be right about that kid and the snake, but what about the off-chance of 1% that you are wrong?

Edit- Didnt mention that less than 24 hours later, the python regurgitated everything, all 3 rats came out, and yeah, none of them were alive.