Family cat 'eaten by pet python' (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

A family has called for a change in the law after a 13ft (4m) Burmese python crushed and ate their cat.

Four-year-old Wilbur, who lived with his owners in the Brislington area of Bristol, was apparently ambushed by the reptile in a neighbouring garden.

Owners Martin and Helen Wadey said they heard "blood curdling cries" which they knew were being made by their pet.

They said they were unable to prevent Wilbur being eaten alive by the snake, which a neighbour keeps as a pet.
***
The Wadeys are campaigning for any potential owner to require a licence because, Mr Wadey added, many owners underestimate the snake's "wild instincts".
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestersh...

[saltpoint]

1. It was yum-yum time for the snake.

[timeforpeace]

2. Where to start? Change in law? Why, are 13ft pythons legal in gardens? Anywhere? Journalists, you

can't live with 'em, and you can't teach them how to write coherently. But they get paid to do so, at least.

[lame54]

6. everything is legal till it's made illegal

[Maraya1969]

61. I think animal control needs to round up all these pythons, (and there a a lot of them)

and either put them in a zoo or kill them. We had a child killed here recently.

Maybe it should be illegal to sell them. The are becoming a menace.

[MercutioATC]

3. Sounds like their neighbor owes them a new cat.

I don't see this as justification for legislation, but as long as we have things like helmet laws here in the states, I guess I can't pick on the Brits for passing silly legislation.

[TahitiNut]

9. The snake's owners should at least compensate the cat's owners for the cost of a snake dinner.

... and return the bones, claws, teeth, hair, and collar (if any) when they're excreted.

[aquart]

11. I see. You think it's funny.

That beloved animal died in terrified agony while they desperately tried to free him.

Lotta humor there.

[saltpoint]

13. How could the cat have been saved once the neighbors made the

decision to get a pet snake?

That part is pretty important.

As another poster downthread indicates, snakes get hungry and have to eat something. Cats also eat things, like birds. Animals have to eat. The snake saw a digestible smaller animal and went for it.

I get no anti-cat vibe from TahitiNut at all and in all instances look forward to her next post. The reality facing the Wadeys is a sad one. A shark who attacks a swimmer in the Gulf of Mexico isn't "bad" for having attacked the swimmer. Sharks eat stuff. They see something splashing around and they think it might be something to eat so they go for it. The snake went for the cat. I'm sorry someone lost one pet in the scuffle but that's pretty much how it is in the animal kingdom.

Now you get on your knees tonight before bedtime and say a long prayer to Marlin Perkins.

[EFerrari]

30. My cat lady in Santa Monica wouldn't adopt out a kit to me

after my girl went missing OUT IN THE YARD. I thought about lying to her because I really wanted that cat.



But, I didn't lie, I signed the contract and since then, zero of my guys have been roadkill or coyote snacks and they seem to be pretty happy -- even when they can't convince me that 5 a.m. is 7 a.m.

[saltpoint]

37. And since you mentioned it, exactly when WILL pets figure out how to

tell time?

How annoying of them to be quadropeds, pretending not to be aware of the clock.

It's unnerving and it's outrageous. Why hasn't Nancy Grace addressed this topic?!

I'm glad people like you are the ones who have pets. I'm guessing with the python neighbors in the OP's story the pet tension was just the token tension and that just past the garden there were maybe sharper things afoot.

[backwoodsbob]

55. my dogs DO know time

they know what the middle of the night is...because thats when they wake me up EVERY night to let them out

[madeline_con]

45. "... say a long prayer to Marlin Perkins."

All the time waiting upstream while Jim wrestles the python.

spell edit

[TahitiNut]

19. Uh-huh ... that's gotta be it. You're very perceptive.

That must be why you carry a "Sympathy Police" badge. So many wrong-thinking DUers and so little time. It's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it.

Never mind that the cat was running loose outdoors and in a neighbors yard. Never mind that the owners of any pet that let it run loose are putting their pets in danger. After all, EVERYONE knows that it's a cat's inalienable right to go wherever it damned well pleases. Any little critters (song birds?) the cat kills are fair game, though.

Quite frankly, I don't see any "white hats" in that story. But YOU know better. It's YOUR job to look down upon those who don't exhibit the proper sympathy. Good luck.

[teranchala]

21. Haha..i like your style there

haha

[TexasObserver]

26. The snake was in its yard. The cat wasn't. The irresponsible cat owners are to blame.

This isn't complicated. A pet cat was being allowed to roam the neighborhood, and it got eaten by another animal. While allowing people to own big snakes is probably stupid, the cause of this tragedy was the cat owners. When someone thinks their pet is as adorable to the world as it is to them, and when they let that animal out to run the neighborhood, it's just a matter of time until someone or something hurts that animal.

[madeline_con]

40. Would you change your tune if it had been a kid who'd wandered?

Whomever's yard, I'll wager you'd have a fit if the snake ate a kid.

speel edit

[TexasObserver]

60. Of course. A child isn't a pet. A cat is. Allowing either to run loose is a mistake.

The lesson is simple: Don't let your pets run loose. Animals tangle. Cat owners certainly don't give a damn when their unkept cats roam the neighborhood, killing birds, lizards, and squirrels that are happily playing in someone else's yard.

I realize cat people tend to think of their cats as children, but they're not. They're cats. And when they're in the yard of someone else, they're an annoyance, and sometimes they're killers.

[ZombieHorde]

65. A human child does not compare to a cat.

A cat is closer to the birds it kills than a human.

[PSzymeczek]

20. Ewww! n/t

[BlooInBloo]

4. ...

[saltpoint]

5. The Wadeys should get a pterodactyl next.

[flvegan]

7. Already required here in Florida, doesn't make a bit of difference.

Licensed owner and microchipped snake, matter of fact.

[saltpoint]

8. Hi, flvegan. Is this the same breed said to be thriving now in the

Everglades?

[flvegan]

12. Yup. They've declared open season on them, too.

[saltpoint]

14. God, the poor Everglades. First idiotic developers and land use thieves,

now pythons.

[Lorien]

34. True, the damned things are everywhere down here

VERY bad for indigenous wildlife, like all the Galapagos iguanas in the Keys.

[InvisibleTouch]

36. There are Galapagos iguanas in the Keys??

That's news to me! Are you sure it's not green iguanas? Not saying you're wrong, just that I've never heard that, and have a hard time imagining how they could have gotten there and what they would live on, since they graze on specific marine algae.

[madeline_con]

43. And don't forget 6 foot monitor lizards in peoples' yards. n/t

[Tesha]

10. Cats routinely eat things (like songbirds, chipmunks, etc.). Pythons eat things.

Fair's fair; this time the cat lost.

If you don't want your pet cat to participate in the food chain (up or down),
keep 'em indoors.

Tesha

[stray cat]

16. Like myself - you must not be a vegetarian

[KittyWampus]

28. And if the neighbor's toddler manages to get through the fence next?

[flvegan]

29. If the neighbor doesn't want their toddler in the food chain, keep it indoors.

Obviously.

I say that in absolute sarcasm of course. We recently made news here in Florida with a young child being killed by a python even smaller than the one in the OP.

[stray cat]

15. Poor cat!- thats horrible

[eppur_se_muova]

18. Finally, someone with a little sympathy!

So far, the responses to this thread have made DU look like a pretty heartless place.

[stray cat]

41. I can so hear the blood curdling scream of the cat and the helplessness of its owners

If a person was torturing a cat people would be outraged by the person. The natural world is no kinder than any of us - and actually more brutal.

[marmar]

17. A 13-foot snake is not meant to be anyone's pet......

You would think that would be rather obvious to the Wadeys.

[teranchala]

22. That's right. When ours gets over 10 feet we trim his tail.

[EFerrari]

23. It's horrible to hear an animal being eaten.

We used to hear that up in the Santa Cruz mountains where there were a lot of wild critters. To think that it could happen in a suburban garden is even more horrible.

Why, WHY did these people let their cat OUT?

[teranchala]

25. Our cat goes out...takes his chances. He brings in rabbits, rats, mice,

a dozen species of birds, snakes, squirrels, lizards, frogs and some critters we cannot identify. He kills and eats them. That is his job. The big snake in this story has his job too.

[EFerrari]

27. Pets have jobs? If you want to keep your cat, you don't let it out.

Period.

[Kali]

38. uh, barn cats, herding dogs, guard dogs, hunting dogs

horses - all working "pets"

[teranchala]

56. He is not a pet, he is a partner. Please do not tell me how to deal with my furry friends.

...

[Withywindle]

33. There is a cultural difference between the US and UK in this regard.

It really seems like most British people, including serious cat lovers, consider indoor/outdoor to be a natural state for cats, and consider keeping them indoors all the time to be kind of weird and maybe abusive.

Maybe there are less dangers for them in the UK countryside - not as much crazy traffic (or crazy people), fewer predators, etc.

It seems pretty fucked up to let a GIANT TROPICAL SNAKE out of doors unsupervised in England, regardless. Didn't they feed the damn thing? Snakes don't eat when they're not hungry. And what about the climate?

[stray cat]

42. Many animal welfare groups think no animal should be a pet - better to be eaten

in the virtuous wilds or starve to death.

[TexasObserver]

24. When pet owners allow their cats to run lose in the neighborhood, some will die from it.

Whether it's being eaten by a snake, killed by a dog, or run over in a driveway by a neighbor backing out, cats that run lose are a nuisance to everyone but their owner. I don't know why cat owners think their animal should have the run of their neighbors' yards, but when they don't keep their animals on their property, sometimes a dead cat will turn up.

As for pet snakes that are big enough to kill cats, they should be outlawed. Big snakes as house pets for consumers is a dumb idea.

[BreweryYardRat]

31. Ugh. Poor cat.

That's a nasty way to go.

Nobody really comes out of this mess looking good (the cat's owners shouldn't have let it out), but letting your cat run around loose is a hell of a lot less dangerous to everything in the immediate vicinity (with the exception of songbirds and small rodents) than letting a 13-ft python loose. That snake SHOULD NOT have been out of its cage/tank unsupervised. It's easily big enough to consume a small child.

[Berry Cool]

32. I've seen people in DU claim that no indoor cat can possibly live a happy life

and that it's only natural for a cat to roam, that confining it within a house is subjecting it to unthinkable cruelty.

Both my cats are indoors, and still alive into their geriatric years. They don't seem to think their lives have been too cruel. I sure hope not; keeping them indoors has protected them from becoming bird killers or nuisances to others as well as from fleas, ticks, infectious diseases, getting sick from eating something in someone else's garbage, and death by motor vehicle, poison, cruel people, other animals and what have you.

Oh, and they don't have jobs. They happily let me shoulder the entire burden of their care. Lazy welfare queens that they are.

[Brigid]

63. My two spoiled felines . . .

are perfectly content inside my home. They are safe, cared for, and get lots of love. I had one who lived to be 13, have one who will be 12 next month and is in good health, and one who will be 4 next month and will probably live to a ripe old age too. How is that cruelty, especially when you consider the alternative?

[InvisibleTouch]

35. Irresponsible owners piss me off tremendously.

The snake owners, I mean, not the cat owners. I love Burmese pythons, but it would never occur to me to let one loose in my garden. I would be horrified if a member of my family killed a member of someone else's family - not because the snake did anything wrong (it's their nature to hunt, after all, just as it's a cat's nature to hunt small prey), but because I hadn't supervised or provided a secure enclosure. They are wonderful pets, very aware and gentle, but they have to be kept correctly. And irresponsible owners put the rest of us in a bad light.

[WVRICK13]

44. Exactly

A 13 foot python let loose outdoors is a menace to anyone in the neighborhood because snakes climb and can get out of the garden. When the snake gets out of the garden then the general public is at risk. Trust me, if a neighbor let their snake loose in their yard and I knew it, I would ask them to put it in a secure cage and warn them if it does get into my yard it is a dead snake. I have a neighbor who has a very aggressive husky (odd in my experience). He was in my yard one evening and he aggressed on me when I went onto the deck. I called and they came and retrieved the dog. The next Saturday I went out to mow the lawn and there he was again growling at me. I called the owner and asked them to come get him and was told they were in bed and weren't getting up (10:30 in the morning). I said I am going to get my pistol and mow my lawn, if your dog comes at me I will kill him throw his body in your front yard so you can bury him when you get out of bed. Ten minutes later the dog was picked up by the owners and has never returned to my yard.

[Tesha]

57. Did you consider calling the Animal Control Officer or did you get off on an opportunity...

...to brandish your gun?

Tesha

[Brigid]

62. Sorry, but I have to side with WVRICK13 on this one.

Much as I dislike the macho brandishing of guns, this is not what was happening here. These stupid owners were just not getting the message after being warned TWICE. And an aggressive dog is nothing to fool around with. If I'm understanding correctly, there wasn't much choice. As extreme as WVRICK's tactics may sound, at least they worked. Some people are just morons and will not get the message unless you hit them with the proverbial baseball bat.

[WVRICK13]

70. We Do Not Have Animal Control

in the backwoods of WV. I called the owners who are supposed to be controlling their animal and they would rather sleep in than take care of their aggressive dog. I do not look forward to brandishing any weapon, I am a pacifist, but I will not be bitten by a neighbors dog in my own yard. I gave them warning and they took care of the problem. I even called the police and they said not their problem, shot it if he comes at you or sue the owners if it bites you. I have never killed anything on purpose, not even spiders or mice.

The only reason I own a gun is there are large numbers of rabid animals in the area on occasion. Last year a rabid raccoon attacked another neighbors dog. Luckily the dog was fine since she was vaccinated.

[WVRICK13]

39. Fuck The Law

If my neighbors snake ate my cat I would hack it into little pieces and shove it up the owners ignorant ass. Snakes are not pets!

[stray cat]

46. Nothing like the sound of a loved one being eaten - I would at least hope for some sympathy

[Rob H.]

47. What a horrible way to go

Poor kitty.

[mnhtnbb]

48. Poor kitty. A domesticated cat probably isn't expecting to encounter

a 13 ft Burmese python in an English garden. When you know there are coyotes or hawks or large owls
in the area, you let your cats out at risk. But a 13 ft Burmese python? A snake that size could
probably kill a toddler.

[SoxFan]

49. 99% of snake owners are head cases

Closet Ted Bundys who get off watching the snake eat mice and rats.

[TommyO]

51. Really? Which bodily orifice did you pull that gem out of?

[ZombieHorde]

66. Cats kill animals and leave them at your door, do cat owners get off on that?

[TommyO]

50. As much as I feel for Wilbur and the Wadeys

Had they kept him inside, and not let him roam freely, this would not have happened.

[stray cat]

52. They certainly should keep a python that can eat a small child inside

[Critters2]

68. Had the snake owners kept their animal inside, this would not have happened either.

And who expects a python in a neighborhood in northern Europe?

[rcrush]

53. At least you didnt post a picture of it.

[Pavulon]

54. Unable.., My reaction involves a sledge wedge, and 7 inch Henckels knife..

just retrieving my property from inside your property neighbor..

[Tesha]

58. And if you went onto their property to do it, you'd clearly be breaking the law.

You like guns; since you'd clearly be trespassing with intent
to commit further crimes, perhaps they'd show you their
guns at close range.

Tesha

[ZombieHorde]

67. I do the same thing to the kids who eat from my garden. nt

[Mojambo]

59. Maybe the Wadey's should forget the cats and get themselves a pet Mongoose. n/t

[Brigid]

64. I think the snake might win this one.

You are probably imagining a mongoose/cobra encounter. Believe it or not, a striking poisonous snake is actually relatively slow from what I've heard. That's why the mongoose usually -- but not always -- wins. A constrictor type snake, at least from what I've seen on nature shows, moves very quickly.

[quakerboy]

69. Maybe they need a Fossa.

I had the same thought as you.