Story In the Sun
Saw this story in the sun http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2578242/Pet-cat-eaten-by-giant-snake.html It is quite upsetting reading this. I feel sorry for the owners of the Cat. Can people sign this petition http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/no-to-pythons/
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Comments
no i can not.
fact is, snakes have to eat and exercise too, this cat was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
granted, the owner should have probably fed the snake before allowing it outside to exercise & bask. however, some people never see cats in their garden so automatically think they won't be there.
leaving them unattended is a big no-no though. and the owners of this snake, while obviously knowledgeable to be keeping a snake this size and muppets.
i sympathise with the owners of the cat, but banning all pythons - and other snakes being kept without a licence won't do a thing to prevent this.
it is very, VERY easy to get a licence anyway.
And to say 'that other person' is a tad rude......
Ease and cost depends very much on the individual local authority. Some deliberately interpret the regulations such as to make it impossible for anyone to comply even for something relatively innocuous (sp) , others allow large apes.
On a more general point if there is a suggestion of not allowing any snake to be kept without a license what could a garter snake actually physically do to harm anyone!!!
Ps I thought this was going to be a story about something happening in Spain or somewhere else sunny
Seems to me like a dangerous pet licence would apply then!
But it wasn't.
Let's ban all cats for killing those little innocent birds, mice etc.
The owner of the python was irresponsible, simple really.
You could coil it up in your arms and then squeeze it's tail to make it snap at people.
Surely parents wouldn't allow their child to wander into strangers back gardens?
How would a baby in a bassinet climb into someone else garden?:rolleyes:
The cat's owners must take full responsibility for allowing their cat to wander where it pleases.
I wouldn't even go that far. Two animals exhibiting their own natural behaviour, snake won.
Some blame needs to go to the snake owner if it was left unattended in the back garden (the article says he was given a verbal warning about proper care) and every time a persons cat goes off their property, the cat is at risk (roads, foxes, other cats, dogs, very rarely - snakes)
While I have sympathy for the cat owner's loss, it was an unfourtunate accident.
There is a high probability it will escape, and when it does so a 13ft python is potentially dangerous. Even if it didn't escape, a child could have gone into this garden, unaware of the silent predator, perhaps to retrieve a football when nobody had answered the door.
A friend of mine had a Burmese python of exactly this size, it's a beautiful but formidable animal, able to rear up its head 4 or 5 feet off the ground and look you in the eye. He also had a pet cat, and took great lengths to ensure cat and snake were never in the same area or room because the result would be inevitable. When the snake was outside for some sun it was never alone, and when it showed determination to explore beyond its boundaries it took all your muscles (and his) to control it, and two of us to carry it.
There's been speculation that neighbourhoods which have had lots of cats go missing, to the extent people imagine some anti-cat person must be murdering them, are in fact having cats killed by a python someone lets roam in their garden, or one which has escaped. IMO it's irresponsible pet ownership to leave a snake like this unattended outdoors.
But it could quite easily have been - what if there was a gap in the fencing or all that separated such a snake were bushes it could get through to the next door garden?
And last time I checked cats dont go around killing children whereas snakes like pythons have been known to....
Dogs have killed children. Cows have killed people. Horses have killed people. However, these incidents, like the one in the Sun are very, very rare.
Do they warrant a disproportionate response with additional legistration? Would this even work? The DDA has not prevented dog attacks, nor has it eradicated 'Pit Bull Type' dogs.
Or should existing legislation be better enforced and civil action easier to instigate so that too becomes incentive to take proper responsibility for all pets?
No.
Parents should be teaching their children not to go wandering into other people's gardens. Apart from the danger aspect it's highly rude.
I am sure a lot of people are aware of the dangers of keeping certain types of python; I would not go judging them all by one irresponsible owner, though.