2 children dead after python escapes N.B. pet store

[Are_grits_groceries]

A snake escaped Ocean Reptile and killed two children upstairs. (CBC)

A python photo posted to Ocean Reptile's Facebook page.
Two children died after a python got into an apartment in Campbellton, N.B., RCMP say.

"Police are investigating two sudden deaths of two young boys," Const. Julie Rogers-Marsh said Monday.

It's believed the snake escaped from a pet store called Reptile Ocean. The victims were boys aged five and seven. They were in the apartment above the store.

"The preliminary investigation has led police to believe that a python snake escaped its enclosure in the store sometime overnight," the constable said..

Rogers-Marsh said it went through the ventilation. "It's believed the two boys were strangled by the snake," she said.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2013/08/05/nb-two-die-boa-attack.html

Gak!

[AndyA]

1. How horrible!

I'm terrified of snakes, don't care what they are or how small they are--they all terrify me. I'm creeped out just reading the story!

[morningfog]

2. Wow, what a story. My heart goes out to the family.

Some serious negligence on the pet store owner's part, if this is true.

[RebelOne]

6. Ditto. Totally inappropriate considering the horrific story. n/t

[Frustratedlady]

4. I hope there are charges and/or a lawsuit against the owner.

Those poor children.

[RebelOne]

7. Something from this story is wrong.

"Police have the snake. Initial reports suggested the snake was a boa constrictor."

I have owned two boa constrictors that were 7 feet long and they were not strong enough to strangle a child.

The snake would have to have been a very large python.

[KinMd]

8. It was a python, but story still seems odd

[morningfog]

9. The more I hear about it, the less it smells right.

The boys were visiting the home of the store owner, which was just about the store. The python supposedly escaped its cage and went to the room the boys were sleeping in through the ventilation.

I have a hard time believing all of this. I'm not sure which part is wrong, but something is.

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. I call bullshit on this one, too.

I thought that the minute I heard it. I just can't believe a snake would just up and make it through the ventilation system and then strangle too sleeping children. I don't think a snake would just grab them by the throat. If it was that powerful it would crush their whole body.

Nope. This sounds like a human strangled those kids.

[Tom Ripley]

11. Was it a proverbial bushy-haired stranger snake?

I also call bullshit on this story.

[EvilAL]

12. I grew up in Campbellton

and don't live very far now. I know the owner of the store. Reptile Ocean was a 'zoo' before. He had a license to charge people to come and see his animals for educational purposes. Turns out now that the type of snake involved was an African Rock Python, which is illegal under New Brunswick law without special permits, which he may or may not have had. I have been in there many many times and have handled a lot of his snakes and reptiles. He has alligators, crocodiles, dwarf crocs, caimans, many types of pythons, boas and anacondas. He used to have venomous snakes when he was a 'zoo', but I think he doesn't have those anymore. The upstairs apartment belongs to him, his older and bigger snakes and some crocs and stuff are in his apartment in their enclosures from the zoo when the zoo was upstairs. I think the snake was in his apartment and got out through a vent that according to Jean-Claude is too small for him to fit through.. It's just fucking sad all around, he's been getting a lot of shit, and some of it is deserved, but some people are really going overboard. These kids were his best friends kids, they were like his own.. just fucking horrible..
The RCMP are supposed to give more information as of 3PM, it is now 3:20. I'm waiting to see what they have to say...

[City Lights]

15. Please keep us posted on what you find out. nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. hard to believe

[Matariki]

14. An apartment above a store called "Reptile Ocean"???!?

No THANK YOU!

Seriously. Who would do that?

[EvilAL]

16. It is the owner's apartment,

the snake was in an enclosure in the apartment. The kids were sleeping over.

[Posteritatis]

18. Freak outlier event notwithstanding, it's little different from one above any other pet store. (nt)

[EvilAL]

17. Not much new from the press conference,

they are waiting for the autopsy results and are treating it as a criminal investigation at this point. The province says he didn't have a permit for the python, but he had some kinda zoo permit and the store, but the python was in his apartment.. So much going on, hard to keep it all together...

[Bake]

19. People "need" pythons as pets about like they "need" an AK-47.

And it's inhumane to the pythons. They should be banned.

Bake