Escaped python kills two young children in Canada

This is a very strange story, tragic as it is.

A snake usually kills something when it is ready to eat. It's not like a snake to kill something and then leave the food behind. There was a story from Florida a couple of years ago where a couple kept and starved an 8-foot Burmese python, that eventually escaped and killed the couple's two year-old daughter. The snake weighed less than 15 pounds and should have weighed over a hundred.

In this case, the snake was an African rock python -- one of the largest varieties. Snake experts are saying this is the first case they have ever heard of a snake killing two people at the same time. They claim, which makes a lot of sense, that the snake was not looking for human food, but that the kids ate something (like chicken) for dinner and the snake was drawn to that smell. They usually don't go looking for food, but lie in wait for food to come to them.

The liability for this lies heavily on the pet store owner. Not only did the owner not keep the reptile in a secure-enough enclosure (obviously), but there were no safeguards which prevented the snake from leaving the room once it escaped its enclosure.

I think it is foolish to take dangerous wild creatures and try to make them pets in a city. The USA banned pythons after too many were set loose in Florida and they have taken over and are killing the natural wildlife. Pythons belong in the jungle not in a city.

The focus here should be on the two kids, not the snake. The parents of these kids must be devastated. Poor kids and parents.

Such animals belong in the wild or in zoos, not in pet shops.

sounds like a two legged snake in my opinion

It was actually in New Brunswick, not Montreal. I can only assume they put Montreal because they are both parts of French Canada.

Once in a few years you hear such stories and it just seems such a senseless loss of human life. Children getting killed in an urban environment by a creature meant to be left in the wild. Snakes can never be pets, they dont show attachment, neither are they cute and cuddly.

I wish there is a ban imposed on trade in such dangerous species.

Why in the hell would anyone want to keep a critter like this anyway and why in the hell would anyone be allowed to keep such a critter, the pet shop owner should get a life sentence for negilgence and the law changed to ban these things from private ownership.

Seriously, this sounds like something from a horror movie. Awful! Just awful! Two little kids dying in such a way. I can't imagine what they went through.

The focus here should be on the two kids, not the snake...Such animals belong in the wild or in zoos, not in pet shops.

Presuming here your focus was back on the snake.

There is no bringing the kids back, and there are many thousands of such snakes kept as pets throughout North America. (Far more people are killed by dogs; a snake killing a person is extremely rare.)

Two little kids dying in such a way. I can't imagine what they went through.

It's hard to imagine a large snake moving to get into position around two people who are lying down and not one of them waking up and yelling. To constrict, the snake had to wrap itself around, in this case, not one, but two bodies at the neck.

Kent Mcgraw: The USA banned pythons after too many were set loose in Florida and they have taken over and are killing the natural wildlife. Pythons belong in the jungle not in a city.

And in case folks in Japan don't know what you meant by "wildlife" they're killing alligators.

The snake was in fact "destroyed" to quote cbc news

The snake was in fact "destroyed" to quote cbc news

A 13-footer (4 meter), and around 100 lbs (45kg). The two brothers, who almost certainly were sleeping next to each other, didn't have a chance when the python dropped on the two of them.

From the CBC:

"Initial reports said the snake escaped from the store into the residence, but police said on Tuesday it was being held in a glass enclosure in the same apartment as the two children."

That explains a lot.

@Cleo.

that was an absolutely outstanding post. I couldn't have said it better myself this is exactly what should happen to the pet shop owner and the snake. I have absolutely no idea why at this point you can receive three negative points for your thoughts. People are really insane.

There's something out of place in this story. As I am in Brazil, home of the huge (and of undeserved fame) sucuri - aka anaconda - we see, rarely, on TV of cases of constrictor snakes attacking dogs and small animals, but to eat it. Never for "sports" as happened in Canada. The only animals observed killing for the act of it are us. Chimps and big cats were also observed killing for "pleasure", but they ended up eating their hunt later.

Elbuda: "So, the police will not kill this snake??"

They only kill the snake AFTER it confesses! The snake did nothing wrong, in any moral sense. You can only apply human laws to the snake after applying human morals. So are you suggesting the snake is human and murdered two kids?

Nice! A huge python strangles and kills 2 little boys while they are asleep in the middle of Montreal, Canada?? So, the police will not kill this snake?? Just give it back to the idiot pet shop owner?? Time to put that owner behind bars and chop that python into a million pieces! Poor little boys RIP Make these snakes ILLEGAL, do not sell them in the USA, CANADA etc...they are meant to live in jungles!! Not in modern cities!

So, the police will not kill this snake?? Just give it back to the idiot pet shop owner?? Time to put that owner behind bars and chop that python into a million pieces!

The snake should die for simply being a snake? The responsibility here lies 100% with the pet shop owner who stocked his shop with animals that are not suitable as pets in the first place, and allowed a dangerous animal to escape in the second place. By all means charge the pet shop owner with negligent homicide or whatever the law dictates, but let the snake (also a victim) go free in the jungle where it belongs, repatriated (with the rest of the pet shop stock) at the owner's expense.

Where the article says the snake 'surprised' the children, does it mean they woke up? I hope not. They would have been terrified, poor mites.

Such a sad loss. The snake did what a snake does. Why it killed a second boy...? The pet shop is at partial fault for not securing the snake's enclosure.

Who could have seen this one coming?