Friday, July 15, 2011

Good

The 'parents' who kept an 8 foot python in their home when they had a small child and then expressed surprise when said snake slithered into the crib and killed their child have been found guilty of manslaughter, 3rd degree murder, and child neglect.  During the trial, it was revealed that the snake had not been fed for a month before the death of the little girl.

As a parent, I gave up a lot of things when the first of the brood came along, and I will probably never get them back due to grandchildren being due before the last of my spawn leave the house.  These include dangerous pets, leaving firearms and such lying around the house when I'm not using them, and a whole list of other activities that just shouldn't happen when you've got kids.

I'm not going to discuss whether or not it's appropriate to have an ambush predator like a python in the house when your kids are small enough to look like breakfast to it.  That's open to interpretation and proper care, feeding, and control of the animal.  Just like you can be a good parent and responsible gun owner, I'm sure that there are ways to be a good parent and responsible owner of an 8 foot carnivorous reptile.

I hope these two wastes of protein get the book thrown at them and have to serve the entire possible 35 years.  I hope they have to spend 23 hours a day in their cells, with their enclosure papered with photos of their daughter.  I want them to be reminded every moment that they are awake that they had a precious gift given to them, and they fed it to the snake.

2 comments:

Ruth said...

I saw this when the kid was first found, glad to see the result.

To be fair to all concerned my understanding (from snake owning friends) is that most such large snakes aren't actually fed all that often. That a month is a bit long yes, but not as long as you would think it was. Obviously however it was to long in this case as the snake decided to go hunt his own instead of waiting.

What got me about it, the parents admitted that they deliberetly placed the snake around the kid's shoulders not infrequently, and that the snake had been regularly getting out of its tank so they "had plans" to do something about it. Dude, your snake is getting out because its hungry and its trying to find the snack you showed it. Snake that size could even kill an adult if it wrapped around the right portion of the body, so what makes you think your kids are immune??

Chris said...

What is the point of having a reptile anyway? Apart from the trainer pets, any animal that can't tell you little Timmy just fell down the well isn't worth having.

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