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from the who-left-these-mf'n-snakes-in-the-mf'n-house dept.
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Woman Found Dead With A Python Around Her Neck in House Full of 140 Snakes
In a residence purportedly housing 140 other snakes, an Indiana woman was found dead Wednesday evening with an 8-foot-long python hanging around her neck.
According to a report from the Journal & Courier, police are currently investigating the death of Laura Hurst, 36, in Oxford, Indiana, though they have a hunch. “She appears to have been strangled by the snake,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Kim Riley told the Journal & Courier, but that fact remains unconfirmed until results come back from an autopsy scheduled for Friday.
The reticulated python wrapped around Hurst’s neck was apparently one of 20 snakes she kept in the house and visited regularly. It purportedly belongs to Benton County Sheriff Don Munson (Oxford is part of Benton County), a next-door neighbor who was also the first to come across the body. He’d retrofitted the residence into a sort of makeshift snake sanctuary filled with 140 snakes per the J&C report, though exactly how many belong to him remains unclear. According to the report, Munson called Hurst’s death a “tragic accident with loss of human life.”
While captive pythons tend to be less aggressive than their wild counterparts, attacks are still far from uncommon. One study found that at least 16 people in the U.S. have been killed by them between 1978 and 2009. Their sheer size alone can prove challenging for many owners. Reticulated pythons can weigh up to 350 pounds and grow upwards of 20 feet long.
And I just wanted to share this fact because I found it deeply disturbing: Though they usually strangle their prey, there’s been a few rarecases of wild pythons swallowing grown men and women whole. Holy crap.
[H/T Journal & Courier]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 02 2019, @07:14PM (5 children)
Mankind can't even communicate with those animals most closely related to him. Our fellow primates are often described as "unpredictable". Why should we think that we can "domesticate" or "tame" a reptile? Those reptiles are far more alien than a monkey, or a badger, or any other mammal. I won't walk into a lion's cage, I'm certainly not going to share my home with a reptile that can kill me. That goes equally for venomous and constricting reptiles.
Maybe we'll be hearing of trade in komodo dragons for pets soon? Oooh, wouldn't THAT be exciting? The dragon grows up, the owner doesn't want it around any longer, so he turns it loose on the edge of town. Ehhh, forget that. The dragon gets tired of waiting for breakfast to be served, so it eats the owner, then escapes in the middle of downtown! Oh yes, that would be exciting!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 02 2019, @07:29PM (1 child)
This is due to climate change, the sun has been so inactive that the snakes can sense the change in magnetic field strength. It is the turning of the hyperdimensional zeitgeist into the next cycle. How ancient is that Antarctic ice?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Sulla on Saturday November 02 2019, @10:32PM
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday November 02 2019, @08:29PM
Oh yes, that would be exciting!
Yes it would be. So please have the camera rolling, and keep the damn thing steady and focused! And put a windscreen on the mic!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 02 2019, @11:53PM (1 child)
"Mankind can't even communicate with those animals most closely related to him. Our fellow primates are often described as "unpredictable". "
Difficult to communicate with, unpredictable, and most closely related to me ...
Uhm .... sounds like my brother.
I guess you're right. If we, as humans, often can't even communicate that well with other humans how on earth can we expect to ever communicate with non-humans. It's bad enough humans speak so many different languages. Maybe Alphabet can add Python to Google translate, given how well it translates human languages already ... wait ... nevermind.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 03 2019, @03:47AM
I communicate with other humans just fine. The problem is they often don't appreciate it and I often don't give a fuck.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.