PALM BEACH POST (Florida) 09 May 06 Court squeezes owner of python that attacked dog (Larry Keller)
West Palm Beach: At 8 petite pounds, little Max the rat terrier didn't figure to be a match for an 11-foot Burmese python putting a squeeze on him.
He wasn't. In small claims court Monday, Max's owners got justice of sorts for their beloved pet when a judge awarded them nearly $1,300 in damages and court costs from the snake's owner.
Still, Max is dead, and the female python named Diamond continues living in the Savannah Lakes apartment complex in Boynton Beach where this saga occurred.
Like many other pet owners, Wayne Vassello and Shana Lane considered their pampered pooch a part of the family. They set a place for him at the dinner table at Thanksgiving. He was going to be the ring bearer at their wedding, planned for December 2007.
"I keep a picture of him in my wallet," Vassello, 32, testified, voice cracking. "We don't have kids. That was our child. We celebrated birthdays and holidays."
Lane, 25, testified, "We lost our friend. We're devastated."
It was Feb. 3 when Vassello took Max, not yet 3 years old, for a short walk. When he returned, he unleashed Max near the front door and the huge reptile suddenly seized him.
"The snake had grabbed him by the head. I was shocked," Vassello testified. "It had at least two coils around him and there was a lot more snake left."
Vassello ran to his car, grabbed a golf club and began whacking the snake. The serpent released the dog, but Max bolted in a panic, Vassello said. Diamond's weight is unclear, but 50 to 80 pounds "is a good safe bet," said Keith Lovett, director of living collections at the Palm Beach Zoo.
Max was found dead near a preschool the next day. A veterinarian said the dog's injuries were consistent with constriction.
Vassello and Lane sought $1,546 plus a small sum for emotional pain and suffering from John Corkan, who is keeping Diamond for his oldest daughter. He lived a few doors from them. Vassello and Lane contended that Corkan and the owner of the apartment complex were negligent in allowing the snake to get free. The complex owner settled earlier with the couple.
Corkan argued that Vassello is partly to blame because he let Max off his leash. And he suggested that Vassello might have accidentally clubbed Max and caused his demise when he was was hitting Diamond with the golf club.
County Court Judge James Martz didn't buy either argument. Max was under Vassello's control, even off the leash, he said. And even if he inadvertently clubbed the dog, it was while trying to save him.
Diamond "just does her own thing," Corkan said. "She's never made an attempt to bite or squeeze a person. I have no reason not to keep her."
Corkan thaws a frozen rabbit for Diamond, feeding her once a month. She wasn't hungry when she met Max, he said. "She ate two days prior to that. That's the funny part," Corkan said.
"She's a very friendly snake, actually," added his daughter, Aundi.
Maybe, but there have been occasional python assaults on people.
A Pittsburgh-area man was convicted of child endangerment in 2002 after the family's pet python strangled his 8-year-old daughter. A Texas woman needed 17 stitches after friends rescued her from her 13-foot Burmese python, which wrapped itself around her hand and neck in 2004.
Vassello and Lane's experience with Diamond was so traumatic that they moved from Savannah Lakes. They said they will donate the money Corkan must pay them to a rat terrier rescue group.
The couple recently purchased a new dog, also a rat terrier, named Stewie. They bought him on Max's birthday.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/05/09/s1b_SNAKE_0509.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17
