Darwin award goes to Florida parents ... (and to America ... and to Britain ... and to France ... and to the Netherlands ... and to Sweden ... and to Canada...)

Darwin award goes to Florida parents … (and to America … and to Britain … and to France … and to the Netherlands … and to Sweden … and to Canada…)

… who assured that their offspring didn’t survive. From Fox News:

A 2-year-old Florida child died after being strangled by a pet python, police said.

Stop! Did they say a pet python?

Gintas writes:

Why keep a python as a “pet”? That’s no pet, it’s a dangerous animal. Let’s bring deadly animals into the house, and call them pets! Why, that’s not much different from bringing dangerous peoples into the country and calling it diversity. Is there a Darwin award for countries?

Hannon writes:

That is simply awesome on so many levels. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Here’s the article:

A 2-year-old Florida child died after being strangled by a pet python, police said. Sumter County Sheriff’s Lt. Bobby Caruthers said detectives are investigating the toddler’s death, but it appeared that the child was strangled by the snake.
The tragedy occurred at a house near the city of Oxford, Fla., shortly before 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, local media reported. Officers were at the scene, according to MyFOXOrlando.com.
Pythons are a nonnative species to Florida, according to the Florida Wildlife Commission. But many people own Burmese pythons, which can grow more than 15 feet long and weigh more than 150 pounds.
Florida wildlife officials also have reported multiple sightings of Burmese pythons in the wild.

Roland D. writes:

“Stop! Did they say a pet python?”
As noted with regards to the recent horrible chimpanzee maiming episode in Connecticut, it seems to me that there’s a strong, perverse psychosexual component to the propensity some people seem to have for keeping wild animals as “pets.” Some sort of frisson of danger, one supposes.
Also, note that the owner of the snake was the mother’s “boyfriend”—not the father of the little girl, of/from whom we’ve yet to hear.
My guess is that the single mother—single for reasons we don’t know, and may never know—was attracted to the bad boy with the exotic snakes. Unfortunately, that attraction ultimately cost her daughter’s life.

LA replies:

I also saw a story in the last day—I forget where—about a South African woman who keeps several big wild cats in her home with her, in her kitchen, her bedroom.

* * *

Here is a much more complete story from Click Orlando on the toddler by pet python death. Notice how throughout the article we hear from authorities that keeping a “pet” 12 foot python in your home is just fine, so long as you get a licence and observe certain precautions. Message: the problem is not pet pythons. The problem is radical, extreme pet pythonists.

8.5-Foot Python Strangles Toddler
Pet Python Kills Toddler At Sumter County Home
July 1, 2009
OXFORD, Fla.—A man woke up Wednesday morning and found his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter being strangled by his 8.5-foot pet albino Burmese python, according to Sumter County sheriff’s officials.
The fatal incident occurred at about 10 a.m. at a residence in the 1500 block of county Road 466 in Oxford, which is located about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.
Investigators said there were several bite marks on the toddler.
911 calls from the home were released Wednesday afternoon. The caller told the dispatcher that a baby is dead.
“Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby,” the caller said.
The snake apparently escaped from its cage overnight and strangled Shaunnia Hare, Sumter County sheriff’s deputies said.
Charles Darnell, who owns the snake, woke up and found the snake’s enclosure empty. He went in the girl’s room and found the snake wrapped around the girl’s neck. He stabbed the animal and pulled the girl away before calling 911, deputies said.
Emergency workers could not revive the girl. The medical examiner was called to the Sumter County house, and an investigation into the death is ongoing.
Darnell told deputies this was not the first time the python escaped from its terrarium. He said it had happened as recently as earlier Wednesday morning.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission removed the snake from the home Wednesday evening.
A 6-foot boa constrictor is also inside the house, but it did not escape from the terrarium.
Shaunnia’s mother, Jaren Hare, was also inside the home at the time of the incident, deputies said.
Detectives are questioning Hare and Darnell at the sheriff’s office.
Darnell did not have a permit to keep the snake as a pet. According to snake expert Scott Hardin of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Burmese python owners must have a license to keep the snake as a pet. The license costs $100 a year and mandates specific caging requirements.
“Law enforcement with the assistance of the FWC is going to investigate this case further to see if there is any kind of game violations or any other misconduct,” Bobby Caruthers of the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said.
A Department of Children and Families official said the organization believes that two other children were in the home at the time of the incident, but it is unknown if they live there or were just staying temporarily.
Hardin said the Burmese python is a popular pet because it is considered to be more docile than other snakes. He said the risk of a human attack is low, and attacks typically involve the snake’s owner or immediate family.
The Humane Society of the United States said including Wednesday’s death, at least 12 people have been killed in the United States by pet pythons since 1980, including five children.
Matt Harrison, a Critter Control employee who has worked with pythons for more than eight years, said the animals are extremely strong.
“A 12-foot snake is kind of like having a truck sitting on your chest. They have enough power not only to asphyxiate you, but to break bones as well,” said Harrison, who added that stabbing a python would not force the animal to release its prey.
Harrison suggested throwing alcohol down the snake’s throat or running hot water over it to get it to release its prey.
Harrison urged owners to be careful with pet pythons.
“Most (of) the time, as long as you’re careful, you don’t have anything to worry about, but occasionally, they can turn on their owners,” Harrison said.
Harrison said attacks tend to be a feeding response, but he said it is important to keep cages secure and safe, especially when there are children in the house.
Harrison speculated that there are probably more pythons in Florida than anywhere else in the United States.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, pythons are a nonnative species to Florida, although some Burmese pythons have been found in parts of Florida.
An invasion of giant Burmese pythons in South Florida that made national headlines last year was “rapidly expanding” and expected to reach Central Florida, according to a University of Florida study.
“There’s no part of this state that you can point at and say that pythons couldn’t live here,” researcher Frank Mazzotti said. “They’re capable of incredible movement—and in a relatively short period.”
Most of the pythons were brought over as pets and then turned loose in the wild, he said.
Anyone who comes across a python is urged to call wildlife officials at 888-404-FWCC. For more information about pythons, visit the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
end of article]

* * *

LA to Hannon:

I stuck your comment at the beginning of the entry right after Gintas’s, and then had the idea of changing the title of the entry to include the names of the countries.I had thought his comment was very good, but the significance of it didn’t fully hit me until I read your comment.

Hannon replies:

Thanks, I’m glad my comment was helpful. I really laughed and laughed in a sort of bittersweet way about the “Darwin award for countries” line. I’m still laughing over it. It is as if this one profound statement conveys a catharsis of one basic truth, that we are killing ourselves on our current trajectory. Just one question in this case: Who gives the award?

Kristor writes:

“The problem is radical, extreme pet pythonists.” LOL! Right, pythons are predators of peace. I swear, if we ever do manage to clone a T. Rex, some fool in Albuquerque is going to try and raise one as a house pet. How can people be so incredibly stupid? “Gee, every time I hit my shin with this hammer, it hurts like blazes. Ow! Happened again!”
“Hardin said the Burmese python is a popular pet because it is considered to be more docile than other snakes. He said the risk of a human attack is low, and attacks typically involve the snake’s owner or immediate family.” Oh, well, OK then; nothing to worry about! Honey, let’s go get a python! The kids will love it.
There is an order to the world that cannot be contravened, in which each member is constant to its nature with a beautiful and lively rigor. Our name for this is wilderness. We live in it, all the time; and it lives in us. In that wildness is the integrity of life, that keeps it going. That’s why sojourns in wild orderly places refresh us. But there is no way to disagree with it and win. Why is this so hard to understand?
Maybe humans are the wildest part of the wilderness; maybe that’s what it is to be an errant, Fallen rational animal. Maybe our stupidity about the supposed plasticity of pythons and chimps and humans, or the demographic prudence of valorizing homosexuality, or the sanity of uncontrolled immigration, or the benefits of trashing of our cultural patrimony, are examples of the general wild impulsive stupidity that is for humans the counterpart of the profligacy we see in other species, who engender a thousand offspring at a stroke, so that a few may survive to do the same. Maybe our insane thrashing about is a way of broadcasting seed.

July 2

James P. writes:

“Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby,” the caller said.
[JP: Wait a minute, the snake is stupid???]
A 6-foot boa constrictor is also inside the house, but it did not escape from the terrarium.
[JP: So they have two deadly snakes in the house along with three small children?]
“Law enforcement with the assistance of the FWC is going to investigate this case further to see if there is any kind of game violations or any other misconduct,” Bobby Caruthers of the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said.
[JP: What’s to investigate? What do they even have to think about here? The evidence of “misconduct” is overwhelming.]
Harrison suggested throwing alcohol down the snake’s throat or running hot water over it to get it to release its prey.
[JP: My strategy is not to have a python in the house in the first place!]

LA replies:

Your last comment is extreme and unwarranted and wholly out of keeping with our secular, democratic, inclusive society. Next thing you know, you’ll be talking about throwing out all the Jews. Remember that discrimination is indivisible.

Mark A. writes:

This reminds me of James R. Woodhill’s term “auto-genocide” that he used during your discussion with him over cultural-WMDs. (In my opinion, still the best VFR discussion ever!)

LA replies:

Mark is referring to the 2002 thread, “Another Modest Proposal: Impose America’s Decadent Culture on the Muslims,” in which Jim Woodhill proposed the Ally McBealization of the Muslim world as a way to disarm and demoralize it.

Maureen C. writes:

When the mentally challenged parents and other perpetually adolescent petowners who need foreign pets to feed their narcissism get tired of feeding their “pets,” they don’t just do the obvious and kill these predators—no, that would be inhumane. They release their “pets” into the Florida everglades—where they are free to grow to even greater lengths and cruise up and down the canals of Florida’s many suburban neighborhoods. The next two year old victim will be bushwacked while playing on his patio by one of these “pets.” Also evil are the pet store owners who, for mere gain, sell these predatory animals. The only hope, given human stupidity, is that the Florida gators will be a match for the pythons.

July 3

Rose writes:

I thought you might enjoy this article by Anthony Daniels (Theodore Dalrymple) on the phenomenon of keeping lizards as pets, “Reptophilia.” Though after reading that “phoboa” joke in the opening paragraph, I’m little ashamed to be a fan of his.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 01, 2009 12:43 PM | Send

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