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Toddler's death renews calls to ban importing pythons to Florida

The Associated Press

A family in Oxford in rural Sumter County woke Wednesday morning to find the pet Burmese albino python wrapped around Shaiunna Hare

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 2, 2009

Updated: 07/02/2009 04:04 pm

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Shaiunna Hare

TAMPA - The suffocation of a toddler by a pet python is bolstering calls to ban the importation of the reptiles.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson this year introduced legislation to add pythons to the list of injurious non-native species that are prohibited from being imported into the United States.

The death of 2-year-old Shaiunna Hare "certainly brings more attention to the issue," Nelson's press secretary, Bryan Gulley, said today. At the very least, "it will make someone wanting to get one of these snakes to think twice about it."

The Humane Society of the United States and The Nature Conservancy are backing the Florida senator's calls for a ban.

Sumter County deputies are investigating how an 8 1/2-foot Burmese albino python escaped its cage Wednesday morning, slithered into a bedroom and wrapped around the toddler in her crib.

Charles Jason Darnell, the boyfriend of Shaiunna's mother, told authorities he stabbed his pet snake until it loosed its grip on the child.

A preliminary autopsy report found Shaiunna died of asphyxiation. There also were bite marks on her forehead and upper arms, officials said.

"The family is in grief right now," sheriff's Lt. Bobby Caruthers said. "We're going to complete our investigation, and when it is completed we will review it with the State Attorney's Office, and at that point we will decide if any charges will be filed. There's no timetable.

"This is a very bizarre and horrible incident," he said.

Darnell does not have the required $100 permit to own the python; failure to have a permit is a second-degree misdemeanor.

The python also was not kept under lock and key as required by law.

The python and a 6-foot red-tailed boa constrictor were removed Wednesday afternoon from the home in rural Oxford. The python is being treated for stab wounds and is expected to recover.

Wildlife authorities say it may be the first documented python attack on a human in Florida.

But for almost two decades, pythons have been working their way into Florida's wilderness, particularly the Everglades.

Although the impetus for Nelson's legislation was the effect on the environment, the deadly attack in Sumter means there's now a public safety issue, Gulley said.

Burmese pythons can grow up to 20 feet and weigh 250 pounds. More than 300 pythons were found around Everglades National Park last year, three times the number in 2005, The Nature Conservancy said.

Since 2006, three other people – all adults with experience handling large constrictors – have been killed in the United States by pythons, said Beth Preiss, director of the Humane Society's Exotic Pets Campaign.

"If ever there was a case for an animal that should not be a pet, a large constrictor snake like a Burmese python is one," she said. The problem is "they are very available. You can order them over the Internet."

Reporter Josh Poltilove contributed to this report. Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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