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WINNIPEG SUN (Manitoba) 11 October 05 Feasted On Feline Bulge In Python Probably Pet
Miami (AP): It had only been two days since Elidia Rodriguez had seen her Siamese cat, Francis. So when a Burmese python showed up Sunday in a wooded area behind her house in northwest Miami-Dade County, the 66-year-old woman thought nothing of it.
That was until her son, Andres, noticed a peculiar bulge in the python's belly.
"I'm sure there's a cat in there," he said later.
It's the latest python incident in South Florida, where exotic snakes are proliferating and swallowing pets and other creatures whole. Two weeks ago, a four-metre python gulped down a two-metre alligator until its stomach ruptured, alarming public officials and citizens. And for residents like Rodriguez, Sunday's incident heightened the concern.
On Sunday morning, Rodriguez was walking her dogs when she encountered the snake, which was three to 3.5 metres long, her son said.
He said his mother called him to the scene because he had caught snakes on the property before. He said he was trying to capture it when he noticed the bulge. That's when he decided to call 911. The Miami-Dade Anti-Venom unit arrived and bagged the python about 11 a.m.
"It was a pretty good-size animal and it wasn't friendly, either," Capt. Al Cruz said.
He said when he tried to grab the python, it tried to bite him several times. He said the snake had several rows of about 100 teeth, and could have inflicted a significant bite.
"I figured it hasn't been a pet snake for some time now, especially with the temperament that it had," he said
Cruz said the bulge in the python's stomach was about 38 to 41 cm and suspected the cat to be about 18 pounds.
"It was a full-size pet," he said. "I even felt the legs in the stomach."
Andres Rodriguez said the cat was about a year old, and that his mother had received it from a friend. When he told her that he thought the python had eaten her pet, he said, her eyes got watery.
He was still trying to decide how to break the news to his six-year-old daughter, Nicole, who lives in Tampa.
He said she had become close to the animal, and would be heartbroken.
Cruz said the venom unit sees about three to four pythons a year roaming the streets of Miami-Dade County. He said they can be found anywhere from Miami Beach to Cutler Ridge.
Feasted On Feline Bulge In Python Probably Pet

LE SOLEIL (Quebec City, Quebec) 11 October 05 Python inquiétant... et envahissant
(AFP) Après le python qui a englouti un alligator, c'est au tour d'un chat d'avoir été avalé par un reptile en Floride. Au retour de leur promenade dominicale, la famille Rodriguez remarque à proximité de leur habitation un python birman de 3,5 mètres de long avec une grosseur au niveau de son tube digestif, ont raconté les autorités locales. Ils constatent alors la disparition de leur chat et en concluent que ce dernier a été englouti par le python. Hypothèse vérifiée par une radiographie du reptile. Il y a une semaine, un autre python, également birman, de quatre mètres de long avait avalé un alligator de deux mètres dans le parc des Everglades. L'arrivée de ces pythons originaires de Birmanie, qui prolifèrent dans les Everglades, inquiète les biologistes qui craignent pour l'équilibre écologique des marais de Floride. Utilisés comme animaux de compagnie, ils sont éventuellement délaissés par leurs propriétaires.