Burmese pythons became
established in Florida decades ago as a result of the international pet trade.
A snake had been spotted in
rural Warren County at the same time that two dogs and three chickens went
missing, the snake weighed one-hundred and sixty LB.
The 14ft Burmese python has
been shot dead in a Missouri yard after it had apparently been targeting pets
in the area.
Pauline Horstdaniel was
woken on Tuesday morning after her dog began barking in the yard and she
discovered the snake, KTVI-TV reported.
She said: "I was
terrified. I got my husband out of bed. He's out there in his underwear with
his gun."
Mrs Horstdaniel called her
father-in-law Clayton Dement for help, and he killed the python with two blasts
from his shotgun.
Mr Dement told CBS Radio:
"I'm sure it was hungry and whatever else, so it was being a little more
brazen in its actions as far as coming out and trying to get the dog and other
animals around here."
A Missouri Department of
Conservation official said owners of Burmese pythons have been known to dump
them outdoors when they get too big.
It comes after a female
Burmese python was captured along a wildlife-watching trail in Everglades
National Park - the second largest to be caught in Florida.
The snake, which measured
18ft 3ins and weighed 133lbs, was captured on Shark Valley tram road on 9 July.
Linda Friar, a spokeswoman
for the park, said the snake was euthanised humanely and a necroscopy found it
had not reproduced this season and its stomach was empty.
There are estimated to be
as many as 100,000 pythons in South Florida.
Over the weekend, Texas
police cornered an albino monocled cobra after it was found in the third floor
of an apartment block in Houston.
The venomous snake was
blocking a residents' doorway and attacked police officers as they tried to
capture it, CBS News reported.
Scarry
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