Posted on 08/26/2007 7:15:48 AM PDT by LibWhacker
CINCINNATI, Aug. 24 A 10-year-old boy who said he hated snakes killed a 10-foot python at petting zoo by stomping on the reptile's head.
Scott Braunstein, a reptile handler who brought the snake to the St. Bernadette Festival in Amelia, Ohio, last weekend, said he was shocked by the boy's violence, The Cincinnati Enquirer said Thursday.
The snake, named Popcorn, was a non-poisonous albino Burmese python.
Braunstein, who operates House of Reptiles in Dry Ridge, Ky., said the boy approached him and told him that he hated snakes. The child then raised his leg and stomped down on the snake's head, Braunstein said.
A man believed to be the boy's father grabbed the child and said, "This is why I don't take you anywhere," before disappearing into the crowd, the newspaper said.
"I have never, never had anything like that happen," Braunstein told the newspaper.
Pure animal rights wacko, BS.
Well, not being from DU, I hope that the dad cracks the kid's butt and gets through to him what the limits are.
Failing that, if the courts and the therapists get involved, then the kid's already lost.
Courts just make the father figure look impotent to the kid, makes the child think he's the center of the universe, and therapists, thereapists are like the Happy Meal of faith.
By the time he was 10 our son would have known better but I remember when each of my sons was about two, they had completely different reactions to small creatures. The older one would see an insect and want to pick it up and hold it and take care of it. You younger one at two would see an insect, say, “bug” and stomp on it. Since my husband has a degree in entomology, we worked to teach all our children and now our granddaughter to learn about insects and respect them. We do swat misquitors however and brown recluse spiders but we are pretty fond of wolf spiders and even most of the wasp family. Paper wasps (not very many where we live) are the only ones who will really attack you. And yes, we like snakes and taught the kids how to stay away until a grown up IDed it.
It is obvious that the father is some of the problem here. Most fathers in this position would have offered to pay for the snake. I’m sure when this kid got home he was allowed to go outside and play and to look for more snakes.
Oh, I don't know. I didn't kill people's pets when I was a kid. Even as I child, I always found something inherently wrong with killing animals just for fun.
Maybe I was different.
I disagree, this kid is a 10 year old that has been allowed to retain the emotional maturity of a 2 year old.
Pure animal rights wacko, BS.
I don't understand your response. The kid has no respect for private property and shows the makings of a future sociopathic violent criminal.
Me too. I remember when I was a kid catching lizards and sticking them inside of bug lights, tying firecrackers to a cats tail and all sorts of other cruel unthinking things that boys do. The bottom line is that kids, especially little boys are mean as hell. That kids dad did the smart thing by grabbing the kid and getting out of dodge quick.
The kid is 10 years old!
I have trouble believing a 10 year old could stomp on a 10 foot python one time and kill it.
Those things are all muscle.
“Anyone know what an albino Burmese python costs?”
The only price I could find after doing a quick check was about $250 for a baby. A ten footer was easily worth over $1,000, and probably more than double that.
Time to charge the boy/father with destruction of private property and demand payment.
As a boy, growing up in Queens, I captured a garter (spellings vary) snake and adopted him. I did not understand that you could never expect affection from a snake. Sensing his unhappiness at living in a milk box, I took him back to the brook whence I captured him and released him. He swam a short distance and looked back at me. There is still a secret bond between that reptile and me.
When my daughter was younger and came screaming from the back yard “Get Daddy! Get Daddy!”, I immediately knew what the problem was. There was only emergency which only Daddy could assuage: a snake by the swing set.
I, for one, don’t care to see animals gratuitously hurt or killed. hunting for food, pest/predator control yes, but ANYONE who just injures animals for the sake of doing it, whatever age, what ever culture is scum (or the child thereof). And yes, there is a wind of People for the Eating of Tasty Animals here.
I will hug him and kiss and pet him and I will call him George / “Of Mice and Men”
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