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NEWS HERALD (Morganton, N Carolina) 19 June 05 Man Shoots Tropical Snake In Chicken Coop (Alex Cabe)
Photo at URL: Joe Baynard holds a 4-foot snake he shot near his chicken coop Saturday Morning. The snake did not look like any native species.(Alex Cabe)
Morganton: A Morganton man was shocked to see a 4-foot exotic snake invading his chicken coop Saturday morning.
After racing into his house for a gun, Joe Baynard shot the snake from about eight feet away with a .357-caliber pistol. He hit it in the neck and killed it.
"It was like nothing I've ever seen," said Baynard. "Nothing like that is native to this area."
Baynard didn't know what kind of snake he shot.? It had markings similar to a ball python. The ball python, which can grow up to six feet long, is a West African snake; commonly kept as a pet.
Baynard thought the snake he shot was an escaped or released pet.
The snake didn't attack Baynard's animals.
"It may have got eggs," he said, "but it didn't hurt the chickens."
http://www.morganton.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=MNH/MGArticle/MNH_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031783370369&path=!news

I went to the website for the newspaper, and it was a ball python. Derek