Reptile & Amphibian Forums

in say the last ten years? Im mostly talking about constrictor related deaths not from venomous snakes.Ive checked the CDC but couldnt find anything.thanks
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you're talking about humans that have been killed by their captive non venemous snakes? I would think the number would be very close to zero... it would be EXTREMLY hard to be killed by one. You would either have to have a very weak immune system and have not washed your hands before handling, gotten bit, and had something on their skin get into the laceration made by the snake. Or maybe someone has a huge barn of rats and chickens and crawled into bed with his full grown burmese python or something... honestly the only way i can see someone dying from this is sheer stupidity. Somoene please correct me if i'm wrong here!
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-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote
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Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

Every few years you hear about someone getting killed by a large pet constrictor (usually a Burm). Generally the snakes are only in the 10 foot range.

I know that somewhere I have seen a breakdown of mortality data for a given year or several year period. Try searching for mortality data or martality statistics online at the CDC or the WHO website.
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Chris Harrison

That's right. The general wisdom is that once your heavy-bodied constrictors reach the 8-10 foot mark, they should be handled with at least one additional person in the room. Fact is, if one of them gets a few coils around you and manages to pin your arms, you could be done in. Even a fairly short wrap around the ol' neck and you could black out.

As to where to get the info...I would try a google search, keeping in mind that "cause of death" statistics are put together for ALL sorts of mishaps. Get creative using combinations of words that may lead you to your desired info. Once you find it...Please share. I agree that it would be very rare...but it DOES happen. Duffy

I got some interesting stuff with "constrictor deaths"...
...Looks like in the ten-year period they looked at there were a total of 4 confirmed deaths from these large pets. They point out that dogs (and, of course, other humans!) are FAR more dangerous. Check it out.

From 1979 to 94 there were 279 deaths from dogs attacking humans..I wanted to find a comparison with the constrictors..I have a neighbor who is an A**hole and if he ever saw me with a snake I am worried he might start something so I want to be prepared with actual facts and statistics..Ive already looked up the stuff on Salmonella and was unpleasantly shocked with the percentage of snakes that carry it..I pretty much thought it was a lizard/turtle thing..
I dont make a habit of showing my reptiles off but Im also not going to hide them, if I feel like sitting on my porch with one I will..Not to mention I have agreed to let this local preschool where my son goes to come over and see some of my reps.And since I live in a very small country town I know this might get around.
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So you are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than bitten by a venomous snake, 3 times more likely to be killed by being bitten (or struck?) by a dog. Unfortunately (?) noone was crushed by a reptile that year, so it doesn't help you search for that particular stat.

www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm

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Chris Harrison

info on actual cases..I keep coming across the same two stories involving a colorado boy and a 43yo man in MO...Someone mentioned a show on animal planet about people getting killed but I dont get that show unfortunatly..I did get some older info but I would rather have some recent deaths by constriction info..
Well its kinda good to know that this kind of thing is really so
rare.Which brings me back to why are people so quick to pass laws
against mid to large constrictors..
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Which brings me back to why are people so quick to pass laws
against mid to large constrictors..
It's the hypothetical that scares the masses. You get one person up saying "IF I was a farmer and IF I just came in from my chicken coop, then IF I took my burmese pythong out and IF I hadn't fed him for 2 weeks, and IF I had perscription nitro pills for heart attacks and IF I was completely alone with nobody in screaming distance, then he could kill me." People hear that, flip out, and want to ban it. Personally, for large snakes such as burms, I agree that they should have to have permits to keep these. Reason being, so many people go out and buy them as 2 foot neonates and think they're oh so cute, then they grow to about 6-7 feet and they're great, but then as they keep growing people dont realize what they have and don't realize just HOW big this thing is going to grow. I know of this guy down in miami who kept a full grown burmese outside in a huge chicekn wire pen. This guy fed him 4-5 live chickens every couple weeks. He finally found a zoo to take it or something, but these are the kind of people who need to be kept from having snakes that large.
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-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote
Information on substrates

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

n/p
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-Doug Daly

"Brian theres a message in my Alpha-Bits, it says: "OOOOOOOOOOOOHHH""
"Peter Those are Cheerios..."

0.1.0 Leucistic Texas Rat Snake