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DESERET NEWS (Salt Lake City, Utah) 15 June 04 Fire crew uncoils boa from a woman's hand
A North Salt Lake woman asked to watch a friend's pet boa constrictor got a little more than she bargained for while trying to feed the reptile Monday.
The woman was putting a rat into the cage when the 5- to 6-foot snake lunged for her hand and latched onto it, said North Salt Lake police officer Russ Barton.
The woman's mother called the fire department to get the snake off. At one point the snake apparently started to coil around the rest of the woman's body, but she stepped on its tail to prevent it from moving any farther, Barton said.
After about 10 minutes, the fire department was able to remove the snake from the woman's hand. The snake's teeth had clamped down into her hand almost like fish hooks, he said.
The woman suffered only minor injuries.
Fire crew uncoils boa from a woman's hand

Are there people out there still trying to hand feed boas? I use 18" hemostats ... just because I don't want to look like an idiot in the news having to call a fire department to get one of my snakes off of me!

The owner didn't tell her, she had no idea.. and had an accident.
She wasn't informed and this is what happened.

a 5-6ft snake 'started wrapping around her body..'
now they're going to make it out as if this 5-6 foot snake (probably actually 3 feet) was about to wrap around her several times and kill and eat her? right.

accidents happen. mistakes happen. this will happen again. the problem I see are these ignorant news reporters that make this seem like what it's not.
In cases like this, they are our voices to the world.. no?

and this is what they get... probably a yearling boa, seemingly going to kill and eat people.. great..

sorry, long day and I just can't stand to see these incidents reported like this..

thanks, Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

I was watching our local news last night, when they were Advertising the story from the 10:00 news like an "ANIMAL ATTACK".

Here is the story. I don't know why our newspapers can't get it right, but they showed the whole story on channel 4 ABC. A lady was tending the snake when she dropped a rat in the cage. She reached further into the cage when she realized she dropped the rat FAR from the snakes head. BIG STUPID MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, the Albino burm grabbed her hand and coiled around her arm. She couldn't get it off and she called the police and fire crew. VERY LAME it even made the news. The Burm was about 5 feet, and not that big. It showed her hand on the news, and they said she had 40 FISHHOOK like pricks in her hand. It was NOOOO Big deal.

We need to educate people how to feed snakes better. This was a COMMON mistake. It was NOT an attack. The snake was just Hungry and following INSTINCTS.

Hope this helps anyone who reads this. Not that it matters that it was a burm or a boa. BOTH would have done the same. Usually the Boa would drop though once it realized it was an arm. However, THIS was an ALBINO BURM.

Jeremy Stone