A friend of mine was told that by having her pet snake around her neck while she was walking down a street that she was putting the people around her in danger. The snake is a ball python and is non poisonous, it is also not very big . She was charged with endangering the lives of the public. Does she have any way of beating this?
It should not be hard to beat this in court. A ball python, as you have pointed out, is non-venomous and not large enough to be a threat to humans. They are also among the most docile of snakes. She should go to her hearing armed with as much educational material on Ball Pythons as she can find.
The officer who charged her probably has an irrational fear of snakes coupled with the ignorance of snakes that usually accompanies this fear. Over-coming this fear and misconception should lead a judge worth his robe to toss this out.
http://www.rexano.org/Statistics/Constri ... pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/medi ... Looking at these two links, you are way more likely to get struck by lightning than to be killed by a constricting snake.
You could also search for statistics concerning death from dog attack, horses and traffic accidents and anything else it makes sense to make a comparison on.
It should also be noted that the deaths from constricting snakes are related mostly to the large constricting snakes such as Burmese Pythons, African Rock Pythons and Reticulated Pythons. There was a recent death of a child in Florida from a large Boa, but with the mitigating factor that the snake was mistreated and malnourished.
A good lawyer should have no trouble beating the charge. However, bear in mind that if someone saw the snake (or your pet hamster on a leash, for that matter), panicked, and fell, you could be hit with a civil suit and lose. There was an article on the subject many years ago, in the Bulletin of the Philadelphia Herpetological Society, by Malvin Skaroff, a lawyer who was also an amateur herpetologist.
NO! I saw some guy walking down the street with one around his neck, I just wouldn't do it with a big snake, his snake was smaller.Big snakes like boa constricktors probably are illegal, becuase of their dangerous size.
Why would you even do that in the first place? Fighting it will probably cost more then the fine also.
It is illegal in some area to spit on the street ... they can get you for anything and blame you for not knowing.
