Family's pet snake kills child
Python strangled a 2-year-old girl in her crib
This web image from funmazaplus.com shows how big a python can be, and so you can see its size compared to a child older than the girl who diedThe snake was due for its monthly feeding, but he 'didn't think' the animal wanted to eat the little girl - Mom's boyfriend
Trial proceedings have begun for a central Florida mother and her boyfriend who are accused of allowing their pet python to strangle a 2-year-old girl in her crib.
Jaren Hare, 21, and boyfriend Charles Darnell, 34, were charged with manslaughter, third-degree murder and child neglect after the July 1, 2009, death of Hare's daughter, Shaianna Hare, in Bushnell northwest of Orlando.
Darnell found the couple's 12-foot-long albino Burmese python named Gypsy wrapped around Shaianna's head and body, according to the Sumter County Sheriff's Office.
The medical examiner found bite marks on the child's head and arms.
Darnell estimated that Shaianna weighed 22 pounds compared to the snake's 45 to 50 pounds, the incident report said.
Darnell told deputies that he woke up in the middle of the night, found the python in the hallway and returned it to its 200-gallon aquarium where it spent most of its time.
He thought he had secured the snake by placing it in a laundry bag, which had a small hole in it, and then covering the aquarium with a quilt held on by safety pins.
But Hare told deputies that the snake had escaped from the tank and laundry bag 10 times in the previous two months, and she was planning to make a locking lid for the tank.
Florida state law requires owners to keep pythons under lock and key. Neither Darnell nor Hare obtained a state permit to keep the python.
Darnell said the snake was due for its monthly feeding, but he didn't think the animal wanted to eat the little girl.
Darnell said he stabbed the snake while trying to pry the toddler from its grip but the child was already dead, the sheriff's report stated.
The couple told deputies they often took the snake out of the tank to play with it and would place it around the shoulders of the children in the home without incident.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission took possession of the python and a red-tailed boa constrictor in the home. After the python was treated for stab wounds, both reptiles were placed with a licensed facility.
Mellow
Please arrest the parents for keeping a python as a pet some people are just freaks shame RIP little girl your parents fed you to their beloved pet how irresponsible, he said the snake was due for its monthly feed i wish it couldve eaten him not the babyReport Abuse
DJWinner
@Sowetan...Eish! what's up with snake photos now? Some of us are not fond with these kind of photos...Report Abuse
Mahlol'adibona
Stupid parents. It was bound to happend. What did they expect.Report Abuse
BOOKIE
Are these people crazy. How can one live with such a big snake and call it a pet. The reality is a snake is a snake and when nature calls it will react to that. You cant change a snake to being human. Some people are nuts.Report Abuse
nalita
RIP bay girl but as for your parents they must go to jail. how can you have such a big snake in the house.Report Abuse
Mellow
@Mahlol'adibona my point exactly thus i say they should be arrested for endagering lives sadly it ate their kid that thing is huge now and cant be kept as a petReport Abuse
TKay
my goodness they treated the monster snake for stab wounds, they should have killed that thing. When will people learn that these animals belong to the jungle and not homeReport Abuse
WordofGod
aowaaa!! sowetan!!!! kante ke eng jwanong? snakes are animals created by God but surely they are not in my good books. My Lord, i cant even look at that picture, madi aka a balega.Report Abuse
DJWinner
It is a snake that came up with a sex idea. Thank you snakes for telling us to bonk one another.. he he he...Report Abuse