It was lunch time for Captive Born Reptiles’ 20-foot, 125-pound python, and pet store owner Terry Wilkins had just stepped into the animal’s enclosure to feed it.
But it quickly became apparent that the snake wanted something more. Before anyone knew what was happening, the animal bit Wilkins and began coiling itself around his head, neck and torso — a python’s chosen method of killing its prey.
“Please, the snake is wrapped around his neck ma’am,” came a frantic 9-1-1 call from a woman inside the northern Kentucky store. The call was published by CNN Tuesday. “He’s got blood all over him. Oh my god, please. Please.”
Captive Born Reptiles has stores in Newport, Ky. and Columbus, Ohio and specializes in snakes, alligators, turtles and lizards bred in-store, which it says are safer than animals caught in the wild.
In this case, perhaps not so much.
Police arrived at the Kentucky store within minutes and pried the snake off of Wilkins, according to the Associated Press. One officer grabbed the snake by the head and worked to pull it from Wilkins’s body. Others pulled the man by the legs to free him from the python’s tight grip. In photos, blood can be seen splattered on the back wall of the snake’s enclosure.
[Officers rescue store owner crushed by 125-pound python]
When police found him, Wilkins wasn’t breathing, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported, though he resumed breathing shortly after. He was taken to Cincinnati Medical Center for treatment and discharged on Tuesday.
“It was only by the grace of God that one of the officers knew how to deal with snakes,” police chief Tom Collins told the Enquirer. “… It was a horrific event.”
But on Tuesday, a woman identifying herself as Wilkins’s daughter posted on the Captive Born Reptiles Facebook page, challenging the popular account of Wilkins’s hospitalization.
“He is perfectly fine and back to work,” she wrote of her father. “The news media exaggerated the extent to which he was injured. He did not almost die or die as people have been saying.”
Police have said that Wilkins wasn’t breathing when they found him.
According to the Enquirer, the python is still alive and is being held at the store. A worker at Captive Born Reptiles’ Columbus, Ohio, location told the newspaper that Wilkins’s bite was minor.
“I’m sure they plan on keeping [the snake],” the worker said. “Why wouldn’t they?”
Pythons, like boas, kill by constriction, slowly squeezing their prey until they asphyxiate. Some researchers have also found that constrictors can kill by cutting off blood flow. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control’s Wonder database, 78 Americans have died from being “bitten or crushed” by reptiles other than alligators and crocodiles. (For those who are interested, alligators and crocs killed 9 people.) By contrast, 450 died from dog bites.
Though Wilkins’s story is probably alarming to anyone who already finds snakes, ahem, less than cuddly, he has often insisted that snakes are not unsafe.
Wilkins was previously a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state of Ohio challenging a law that would regulate what exotic animals could be kept as pets and require most dangerous animals to be microchipped. The law was upheld by a federal court in 2012.
In an interview with NPR about the exotic pets law, Wilkins said, “Oh, I’ve been keeping reptiles since I was a little kid. In my upbringing, a reptile is no different than a cat, a bird or a dog.”
According to the Captive Born Reptiles Web site, the store offers educational programs on the animals and has worked with museums, zoos and state wildlife agencies on breeding and conservation.
But Tim Harrison, a former police officer and animal protection advocate, told a Cincinnati TV station that he thought Wilkins’s belief was misguided.
“I would rather handle a rattlesnake than a 15-foot python,” he said. “Once a python gets a hold of you, a man my size, a pro football player … he’s not getting away.”
In the wild, pythons kill animals as large as wildebeest, impalas and leopards, Harrison added. “What makes us think we can bring them into our homes and make a pet out of a large predatory animal?”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...cky-pet-store-worker-escapes-death-by-python/
But it quickly became apparent that the snake wanted something more. Before anyone knew what was happening, the animal bit Wilkins and began coiling itself around his head, neck and torso — a python’s chosen method of killing its prey.
“Please, the snake is wrapped around his neck ma’am,” came a frantic 9-1-1 call from a woman inside the northern Kentucky store. The call was published by CNN Tuesday. “He’s got blood all over him. Oh my god, please. Please.”
Captive Born Reptiles has stores in Newport, Ky. and Columbus, Ohio and specializes in snakes, alligators, turtles and lizards bred in-store, which it says are safer than animals caught in the wild.
In this case, perhaps not so much.
Police arrived at the Kentucky store within minutes and pried the snake off of Wilkins, according to the Associated Press. One officer grabbed the snake by the head and worked to pull it from Wilkins’s body. Others pulled the man by the legs to free him from the python’s tight grip. In photos, blood can be seen splattered on the back wall of the snake’s enclosure.
[Officers rescue store owner crushed by 125-pound python]
When police found him, Wilkins wasn’t breathing, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported, though he resumed breathing shortly after. He was taken to Cincinnati Medical Center for treatment and discharged on Tuesday.
“It was only by the grace of God that one of the officers knew how to deal with snakes,” police chief Tom Collins told the Enquirer. “… It was a horrific event.”
But on Tuesday, a woman identifying herself as Wilkins’s daughter posted on the Captive Born Reptiles Facebook page, challenging the popular account of Wilkins’s hospitalization.
“He is perfectly fine and back to work,” she wrote of her father. “The news media exaggerated the extent to which he was injured. He did not almost die or die as people have been saying.”
Police have said that Wilkins wasn’t breathing when they found him.
According to the Enquirer, the python is still alive and is being held at the store. A worker at Captive Born Reptiles’ Columbus, Ohio, location told the newspaper that Wilkins’s bite was minor.
“I’m sure they plan on keeping [the snake],” the worker said. “Why wouldn’t they?”
Pythons, like boas, kill by constriction, slowly squeezing their prey until they asphyxiate. Some researchers have also found that constrictors can kill by cutting off blood flow. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control’s Wonder database, 78 Americans have died from being “bitten or crushed” by reptiles other than alligators and crocodiles. (For those who are interested, alligators and crocs killed 9 people.) By contrast, 450 died from dog bites.
Though Wilkins’s story is probably alarming to anyone who already finds snakes, ahem, less than cuddly, he has often insisted that snakes are not unsafe.
Wilkins was previously a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state of Ohio challenging a law that would regulate what exotic animals could be kept as pets and require most dangerous animals to be microchipped. The law was upheld by a federal court in 2012.
In an interview with NPR about the exotic pets law, Wilkins said, “Oh, I’ve been keeping reptiles since I was a little kid. In my upbringing, a reptile is no different than a cat, a bird or a dog.”
According to the Captive Born Reptiles Web site, the store offers educational programs on the animals and has worked with museums, zoos and state wildlife agencies on breeding and conservation.
But Tim Harrison, a former police officer and animal protection advocate, told a Cincinnati TV station that he thought Wilkins’s belief was misguided.
“I would rather handle a rattlesnake than a 15-foot python,” he said. “Once a python gets a hold of you, a man my size, a pro football player … he’s not getting away.”
In the wild, pythons kill animals as large as wildebeest, impalas and leopards, Harrison added. “What makes us think we can bring them into our homes and make a pet out of a large predatory animal?”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...cky-pet-store-worker-escapes-death-by-python/
