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TIMES HERALD-RECORD (Middletown, New York) 23 March 06 Park police find python on road (Wayne A. Hall)
Bear Mountain: It's not every day that local police come upon a species of the world's largest python on routine patrol.
But it was a 15-foot reticulated python that police found, barely breathing, along a road in the Orange County section of Harriman State Park early Friday morning in below-freezing weather. It would later die from apparent hypothermia before anyone could help it.
And it raises questions about abandoned pets that need answers.
Pythons are not locals; they're indigenous to Southeast Asia and thrive in temperatures from 80 to 92 degrees.
They are the world's longest constrictor, growing to a full length of 25 feet or more, with a potentially wicked bite for those who don't respect its space.
The python in the park had all the earmarks of a reptile dump job, apparently by some snake owner either tired of feeding the huge beast or running out of pet room.
"The cops (Palisades Interstate Park Police) found this enormous snake crawling by the road, Route 106, and it was just slightly alive," says Peter Gulliver, manager of Bear Mountain State Park, who assists in the management of adjacent Harriman State Park.
And, yes, a crime was committed if this was a dump job. In New York state, getting caught leaving a snake in the woods could result in a charge of cruelty to animals and/or abandonment, both misdemeanors. The crime goes to a felony if you harm the snake deliberately.
But even if the culprit is never caught, Friday's python didn't die in vain. Its skin is going to be used as a teaching tool at the park's Trailside Museum and Bear Mountain Zoo to educate people about pet abandonment.
"Don't do this to your pets," says park educator Barbara Thomas. "Find a place for them or don't buy them in the first place."
Sullivan County-based herpetologist Randy Stechert says the solution might be for the state to adopt New York City's law against keeping constrictors longer than 8 feet.
He says that some people see baby pythons in pet stores and view them as a manageable pet.
Then, they grow up.
Park police find python on road