Potentially disturbing pic and video at URL below
WTLV (Jacksonville, Florida) 05 January 05 Snake Eats Neighbors Cat (Jessica Clark)
Interlachen, FL: Nicole Salvatore saw something she'd never seen before when she walked to her neighbor's house Wednesday in Interlachen.
A 13-foot-long Burmese python was eating her friend's black cat.
"I've never seen a snake like that," Salvatore exclaims.
The 130-pound albino snake, which is yellow, had slithered from a house a few blocks away.
Salvatore says the snake tried to eat the cat head first, but couldn't do it. "So it moved around and started eating the cat tail first," she describes.
She says the snake had already killed the cat by the time her friend, Dianne Turner, came home from work around five o'clock.
According to Wikipedia, Burmese pythons kill by constriction. Their prey dies by suffocation rather than crushing.
The kitty, Burrito, was Turner's favorite cat, according to Salvatore.
Turner called the Putnam County Sheriff's Office, and deputies along with investigators from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, responded to the scene.
Salvatore says authorities had told Turner she could not kill the snake. "So all we could do was stand there and watch that snake eat the cat," Salvatore says.
So how did the snake get loose in the first place?
Steve Cook owns Bernie, the female python. Bernie lives in a cage, or pen, in Cook's back yard.
Cook says he had fed Bernie two rabbits. However, while Bernie was eating the first rabbit, the second rabbit decided to make a run for it.
The rabbit dug a hole under the cage fence and escaped.
Cook says the snake followed the rabbit and also escaped through the hole.
He says the snake had been on the loose in the neighborhood for two days.
It's not the first time the snake has gotten loose.
Cook says Bernie broke out of the pen about a month ago for a day.
He soon found her and re-enforced the cage.
Salvatore says the snake should not have been loose at all.
She says it could've been a threat to small children, like her niece.
The big yellow python is now back in her pen. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has given Cook a warning.
Cook says an investigator with the agency has also inspected the pen and said it is acceptable.
As for Turner, she's lost her cherished furry friend.
"She loved that cat," Salvatore says, "she really did."
Snake Eats Neighbors Cat
