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TAMPA TRIBUNE (Florida) 29 August 03 Hungry Python Missing; Neighborhood On Alert (Valerie Kalfrin)
Tampa: He's 12 feet long, about 125 pounds, kills with a squeeze, and he's hungry.
Baby, a 2 1/2-year-old Burmese python, disappeared from his backyard cage in the 4200 block of East Richmere Street on Wednesday.
Thursday, his owners warned people to keep small pets and children indoors.
``He would not have any trouble eating something his size,'' said Wendolyn Garland, 32, who owns the snake with her fiance, Charles Mertz.
``It's our baby,'' she said, ``but I am more concerned if it is running loose. I don't want anyone getting hurt.''
This is the second snake reported missing in the city in recent weeks. Pedro, a 6-foot, 50-pound boa constrictor, vanished from a cage outside his owner's South MacDill Avenue home July 29.
Garland and Mertz, 35, bought Baby about 18 months ago. He eats two rabbits every three to four weeks and was due for a feeding before he vanished, she said.
The snake, tan with black spots and opaque eyes, will be aggressive because he is due to shed, Garland said. Baby can hide in places such as garages, woodpiles or trees.
He also moves fast. ``If I run at a steady pace, he can keep up with me,'' she said.
Baby lived in a roughly 6-foot-long homemade cage constructed from a former convenience store display case, wood and wire fencing, Garland said.
``We'd take him out, let him stretch and hold him. If you leave a snake in a cage, he's not social,'' said Garland, who has owned other pythons.
The couple, who own a lawn care business, last saw Baby about 9 a.m. Wednesday. About 7:30 p.m., they noticed their fence gate was open. The steel wire ties holding the cage door shut were undone and the snake was gone.
Garland thought someone freed the snake or stole it. Officials say Burmese pythons can be escape artists.
``We searched under our house, under our neighbor's house. It was pretty much a panic,'' Garland said. ``I was up most of the night.''
The couple called Tampa police, who warned neighbors, issued a be-on-the-lookout alert for the ``at-large dangerous reptile'' and called Hillsborough County Animal Services.
``It's really terrifying,'' said Elke Dennis, 38, a mother of three who lives next door. She has not let her 10-year-old son outside to play and said the snake had often made her nervous.
``Now it's strolling around the neighborhood,'' she said.
Anyone who sees Baby should not approach him but call Hillsborough County Animal Services at (813) 744-5660, officials said. The county will notify a skilled wildlife trapper.
Snakes have bitten city residents in recent weeks. Pygmy rattlesnakes bit a 6-year-old boy and a custodian this month at Clark Elementary.
Hungry Python Missing; Neighborhood On Alert

First I thought a 12 foot 125 pound burm sounded a bit chubby, but a 6 foot 50 pound boa?!?! It must look like a football!
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Larry D. Fishel
Side effects may include paralysis
and death but are generally mild.

When my other half & I took our friend down to pick up her female burm (also named Baby) from NC, we went down with the description of a 16 foot long, 125 pound normal phase burm. Prior to the trip, I made a snake bag capable of holding a 16', 125lb snake. In reality the snake was roughly 11 feet long and was exactly 40lbs (weighed her when we got home). Needless to say the bag I made was WAY too big. She's put on some weight since then and I'm guessing she's probably between 60-70lbs now and roughly 13' long...yep a guesstimate still, but probably a lot closer to the truth than the original one was. People tend to see a big snake and it gets bigger with each 'estimate' of it's size. Before long you have a 300lb, 30' monster. *rolling eyes* People can be amazing sometimes.......

Raven

Obviously the enclosure was inadequate...I'm getting real sick of idiot's trying their hardest to screw things up for those of us who keep responsibly. SICK OF IT...I read about one of these a day...at least!! Thank you for the post, hopefully it will help the word get out (once again) that we HAVE to keep responsibly.
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Troy James Cromwell

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I've yet to meet a boa or burm that can move as fast as me running at a steady pace (and I'm not a very fast runner either.) This is just what our hobby needs, more bad press. I would once like to see an article in the newspaper about someone who has their snakes properly housed with no chance of escape (like most of us that are serious about our hobby.) I guess papers won't sell as fast if the story has a happy ending. Thanks for sharing this with us, Scott.
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Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"In any civilized society, it is every citizen's responsibility to obey just laws.
But at the same time, it is every citizen's responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
—Martin Luther King Jr

>>…they noticed their fence gate was open. The steel wire ties holding the cage door shut were undone and the snake was gone.

Let’s see, first the snake undid the wire ties. Then, instead of crawling over or under or through the fence, it opened the gate. Now THAT’S one of those dexterous morphs.

-Joan

>>>>…they noticed their fence gate was open. The steel wire ties holding the cage door shut were undone and the snake was gone.
>>
>>Let’s see, first the snake undid the wire ties. Then, instead of crawling over or under or through the fence, it opened the gate. Now THAT’S one of those dexterous morphs.
>>
>>-Joan

My thoughts exactly.
They forgot to close the cage when they put him up.
The article described the situation verry poorly.
It should read "Stupid People" "Mr.& Ms. Dumbass told us today , there dumbasses left there snakes cage open , is is to dumb to find it on there own."
But it does not , it reads more like an agressive act by the snakes that were properly caged with good husbandry , to break out of there tightly closed and locked cages , to harm humans.

I'v been close to stupid once.
Unlocked the snakes cage , unlatched the door , and the phone rang.
I walked back in the livingroom to grab the cordless , and walked back into the snake room. My burm was poking his head out of the cage at that time.
I now dont answer the phone or the door till i'm done with what i'm doing.
if it's important , the'll call back.
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Seth Mason.
Do lesbian frogs think they taste like chicken too ?

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES (Florida) 31 August 03 Snake had slithered beneath pickup - Baby, a 12-foot python, is discovered two days after its owners reported it missing. It appeared to have eaten. (Tamara Lush)
Tampa: Baby is back.
The 12-foot, 125-pound Burmese python who went missing last week in a north Tampa neighborhood was found late Friday under a truck across the street from his home.
Baby's owners, Wendolyn Garland and Charles Mertz, called police Wednesday.
The door to the snake's cage was wide open, and Baby was nowhere to be found.
The snake was shedding its skin and hadn't eaten in a few weeks - Baby eats two rabbits every two weeks - and its owners said Baby could be dangerous to small animals and neighborhood pets.
Pythons kill by constriction and are typically found in India and China, although some people in the United States keep them as pets.
Mertz bought Baby a year and a half ago at a pet store in St. Petersburg. The snakes are not illegal to own.
Thursday and Friday passed with no evidence of Baby.
At about 10:30 p.m. Friday, Garland said, her neighbor from across the street spotted the brown-and-black snake under her truck.
Garland and Mertz coaxed the snake out from under the truck and put it back in its cage, with extra security.
Baby had finished shedding its skin, Garland said, and had found something for dinner.
"Evidently, he had eaten," she said. "Maybe a possum or something."
Baby, a 12-foot python, is discovered two days after its owners reported it missing