MORNING CALL (Allentown, Pennsylvania) 31 July 07 No need to recoil from snake, police say - East Penn scaly escapee poses little danger to children or pets. (Kevin Mingora)

Photo at URL below: Robin Rhyder holds 12-foot-long Dan, one of several pythons in his East Penn Township menagerie. (Bob Laylo)

Don't panic about the python.

That's the message from East Penn Township Police Chief Rodger Gehring, who wants to quell concerns about a 12-foot python that got out of its cage two months ago and has been slithering about the rural area.

''We are trying to calm the public,'' Gehring said Tuesday morning. He said he doesn't think the snake poses a threat to children or pets.

But Gehring cautioned that the snake -- which is not venomous -- could bite if it felt threatened. He suggested that anyone encountering it call 911, and the Carbon County Communications Center would get in touch with the owner, Robin Rhyder.

Rhyder said the reticulated python, a 2-year-old female named Dehlia, busted out of her clear plastic cage. He said he searched for her in a hole in the roof, but now suspects she got out through a hole cut to run a pipe outside his trailer on West Bowman's Road.

Rhyder said he looked for her for a while, but gave up hope.

''I thought it died,'' he said. He said Pennsylvania's chilly nights aren't suitable for a snake that inhabits the jungles of southeast Asia.

Rhyder said he learned she was alive after a neighbor spotted the snake Friday on Deiter's Hill Road, which is just above Rhyder's trailer.

''I can't believe it's still in the neighborhood,'' he said.

Rhyder said Dehlia had been fed rats, rabbits and guinea pigs, and that's what she's used to consuming. He said children and pets are not in her diet.

''She's not going to hurt a person,'' he said. ''If someone sees the snake it's going to go the other way.''

Nevertheless, Jeannie Carl, a naturalist with the county Environmental Education Center, said she'd be extra careful if she lived in the area and had pets. Carl said if the pet resembled food the snake had consumed, she believes it would hunt it.

''If I had a small dog or a cat, I would keep it inside,'' Carl said.

She also said people should not approach the snake.

''If you grab a snake, it's going to react,'' she said.

Rhyder pointed out that he has three cats that roam the hillside above his home. He said if Dehlia was aggressive toward pets, the cats would have been long gone.

He also has a dog and five ducks.

Rhyder said he's been looking for Dehlia, but tracking her down is a difficult task.

He said she could be anywhere on the hillside, tucked among vegetation on the ground or coiled up in a tree.

''It's like finding a needle in a haystack,'' he said.

Gehring said police are not looking for the snake, and Rhyder faces no criminal charges for the runaway reptile.

Rhyder said he's still hoping to track down Dehlia before the weather gets cold. After all, the pet cost him $700.

But he still has five other pythons -- two reticulated and three Burmese -- that he keeps in a cage. One of the reticulated pythons, named Dan, is the same size as Dehlia. He also has a 12-foot albino Burmese python that stays in the same cage as Dan.

He has another plastic cage that houses three more pythons, including one that hisses when it's disturbed.

Rhyder said he's loved snakes since he was a child, and the bigger they are the better.

''It's the one addiction I have left,'' he said.
No need to recoil from snake

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