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HERNANDO TODAY (Brooksville, Florida) 25 May 04 Woman jailed after biting head off snake (Cliff Hightower)
Spring Hill: On Sunday, Cynthia Christensen rode down Strauss Street in her mobilized wheelchair to visit with friends, police say.
The friends talked to each other and one woman, Jennie Smith, 31, told everyone about a pet baby python she had purchased a week earlier.
Minutes later, Christensen bit down on the snake's head, biting its head off and threw it on the ground with the snake's blood still dripping off her arm, according to authorities.
"That's a first," said Lt. Joe Paez, public information officer for the Hernando County Sheriff's Office. "That's a first for me."
Paez said he also believed Hernando County Animal Services probably has never dealt with this type of incident either.
"We've had animal cruelty before," he said. "Like people beating animals with sticks and other things... but never someone biting an animal's head off."
Christensen has been arrested in connection with the incident and now faces a charge of cruelty to animals, records show.
She is being held in the Hernando County Jail where her bail is set at $10,000.
Ruth Goldstein, a spokeswoman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said she was not surprised to hear about the incident.
"People do sick things to animals," she said.
If what it alleged is true, the law should be used to its fullest extent, Goldstein said.
"She should be charged accordingly."
According to police, Christensen met Smith and another man, Kenny Foss, around 6:30 p.m. Sunday outside Foss's home.
While Foss held the snake, Christensen exclaimed, "I'm going to bite the snake's head off," a police report said.
Charles Burge was inside the home looking out the window when he saw the woman bite off the snake's head. He ran outside and threw the snake in the woods, so his girlfriend - Jennie Smith - wouldn't see it.
He then held his girlfriend down on the ground after she realized what had happened so she wouldn't get into a fight with Christensen.
Both Smith and Foss told police they never actually saw Christensen bite the python's head off. Investigators also never recovered the snake's head.
When police first questioned Christensen, she told them the snake had bit her lip and she threw it on the ground. A dog in the yard then bit off the snake's head, she told officers.
Deputy Derek Brunet of the Hernando County Sheriff's Office said in an affidavit there were no bite marks on the python consistent with a dog bite and Christensen did not have injuries to her lip or face.
She was then arrested on the charge. If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison for the cruelty to animals charge, a third-degree felony in Florida.
Woman jailed after biting head off snake

ST PETERSBURG TIMES (Florida) 25 May 04 Details fuzzy in snake beheading (Duane Bourne)
Spring Hill: Cynthia Christensen, 46, rolled down a Spring Hill street in her motorized wheelchair to join a group of neighbors in conversation Sunday afternoon and innocently asked to hold her friend's pet python. No one expected the request to end with a reptile beheading.
While holding the 11/2-foot python, Christensen blurted out that she was going to bite off its head, authorities said.
When Jennie Smith, the snake's owner, turned around moments later, she saw the reptile dangling from Christensen's hand. Its head was missing.
Neither Smith, who bought the python at a Spring Hill pet store for $26, nor her friend Kenneth Foss, 44, saw the decapitation.
However, Smith's boyfriend, Charles Burge Jr., 23, told authorities he was looking out the window, and the next thing he knew, Christensen had bitten off the snake's head.
To protect his girlfriend, Burge said, he ran outside and grabbed the snake, as blood trickled down Christensen's arm. He then threw the carcass in the woods, according to a sheriff's report.
When Burge asked Christensen why she killed the snake, she didn't answer. But later, when authorities arrived at 3207 Strauss St., Christensen told a deputy that the snake bit her lip as she held it near her mouth.
She later changed her story, saying that after the snake bit her, she tossed it on the ground where it was bitten by a dog, the report said.
Christensen of 7414 Sealawn Drive was arrested and charged with cruelty to animals because of what authorities called the python's cruel and unnecessary death.
According to the report, the bite marks on the snake were not consistent with a dog, and there were no bite marks on Christensen's lips or face. The Sheriff's Office has not yet recovered the snake's head.
"I don't know what happened," Christensen's fiance, James Woodrow, 46, said Monday. He suggested that there was a pit bullterrier in the neighborhood that could have killed the snake
If convicted of the third-degree felony, Christensen could face fines and as much as five years in prison.
In December, Christensen's battery-operated Hoveround wheelchair hopped a 4-inch lip at the edge of her yard and lurched into the road, striking a 1992 Ford van as it drove by.
Weeks later, Christensen was charged with driving under the influence after blood tests showed she was legally impaired while operating her wheelchair. Those charges are pending.
On Monday, Christensen remained in custody at the Hernando County Jail on $10,000 bail.
Details fuzzy in snake beheading