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Will charges likely to brought against owner of python that strangled two-year-old be successful?

By Steve Lombardi

The 9-1-1 call is chilling to say the least. This Florida man describes how an 8-foot Burmese pet python snake during the night got out of its cage and strangled 'the baby'. The baby is a two-year-old female.

http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=011008&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=6516682&referralPlaylistId=b895e6943a20a5ba0d5beadb011b18b7ea0a1398

Keeping exotic animals as pets may seem to add an edge to a boring life but it's really like playing catch with a knife.

Jaren Ashley Hare, 21, and her daughter shared the home with Hare's boyfriend, 32-year-old Charles Jason Darnell, deputies said.

"The baby's dead!" a sobbing caller from the house screamed to a 911 dispatcher in a recording. "Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby."

Authorities did not identify the caller and removed the person's name from the recording.

Report by Fox News in Orlando, Florida.

A few years ago we had a similar situation in Wapello County, Iowa. Although a grand jury returned an indictment, the criminal case was unsuccessful. These are tough cases to win for prosecutors. There is a lack of criminal intent. Perhaps gross negligence but in very few instances is there criminal culpability. Remember the law allows people to keep Burmese snakes as pets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxgLKyYUPDQ

As Dickens wrote in Oliver Twist, 'The law is a[n] ass.'

The phrase "The law is an ass" originates in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, when the character Mr. Bumble is informed that "the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction". Mr. Bumble replies "If the law supposes that… the law is a [sic] ass—a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EwURzrZmOQ

Legal liability for failing to control your snake may or may not be covered under your homeowner's insurance policy. Every snake owner should have liability insurance coverage. This is nothing to be ignored.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on July 07, 2009 (boomark / email).