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Britney Spears plays with her Bermese Python, Mommy can I have one too?
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I Photo by Kevin Kane/Wire Image.com
The really unfortunate thing about our children idolizing celebrities is that so often they want to be just like them. In many cases that is just fine, but what happens when your little girl comes home and wants to buy a Burmese Python so she can be just like Britney. Do you think Britney Spears thought this one through? Probably not from this stand point, but it worked for her stage presentation.
When a baby python is at the pet store it is about 22" long and will cost about $20. It may seem harmless, so you say OK to your child and buy the new pet for them. Then you sternly tell your kids that they are the ones that will be taking care of this new pet. Great! Except that you really did not do your homework and if you did, what the heck were you thinking! The little 22" snake you brought home will grow to be about 7 to 13 feet long within the first year. Hey but that's not really the kicker, at full growth Paulie the Python will grow to about 30 feet long and average about 200 pounds! Oh that is OK, my kids just love him! Well, if size alone didn't bother you, how about the clean up detail. Paulie the Python is now having regular bowl movements like a horse and you get to clean it up because little Suzi is at cheer leading practice, oh what fun!
Even this part isn't the disturbing part, let's talk about the raw nature of the Python. The fact is that we really don't hear of that many Python's attacking humans, however we do hear about it. Just like the little two year old girl in south Florida that was recently killed by the family pet python. It does happen! As a responsible parent do we really want to take a chance with our loved ones? Simply knowing that a Python kills it prey by coiling around it's victim and squeezing until it is dead should be enough. A Python will and can swallow its kill whole and digest it later. They are opportunistic eaters and will feed even though they have just eaten, so it's not even like you could say "well the family cat is OK cause I just fed Paulie!" A Python can eat a mouse or a six foot alligator, so no your beloved kitty is really not safe.
Now that you have this Python that is escaping its containment like Houdini and winding through your living room only to terrify your friends, what do you do? The answer for many people has been to drive out to the everglades and return him to his natural environment, just like "Free Willy"! Yes well, he was not born free and depended on you to provide his regular dining delights of rats and rabbits, but of course he will find food. He will also find a mate, have lots of babies and live happily ever after, right? He might but what about the rest of us, right now there are approximately 30,000 giant snakes in the everglades alone. They have figured out that where there are people there is food, so here they come. It is such a problem that the state of Florida is urgently proposing stricter legislation on the selling and breeding of all giant snakes.
As a parent, we need to think it through before we bring home any type of pet. Teaching our children to nurture domestic or exotic animals is wonderful, just be safe about your choice of pet.
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