Dozens of Python Snakes Confiscated from One Iowa Home
About two weeks ago, I wrote a story about a small pocket of black widow spiders being found in a park bathroom in southwest Iowa.
It's not often that I find another story that gives me the heebiest of jeebies within that time frame, but here we are.
Apparently, a man in Sioux City felt the need to keep pythons as pets and breed them to the point where he could start a business by selling them off to new owners. All of which is against city ordinance, starting with the fact that he owns multiple pythons in SIOUX CITY, IOWA.
One woman who lives in the area had enough when she found one of the snakes in her garage. Marilyn Twinn told WHO13 this:
That was the last straw for us. I contacted animal control. It was the second time. They came out two weeks ago.
After animal control and local police obtained a search warrant, they went through the property and confiscated the snakes as well as a group of mice while the owner was away.
Twinn added a claim that the owner of the animals has a six-month-old baby, and she considered that a piece of motivation for her call to the authorities:
I can’t imagine how easy it would be for a snake to wrap itself around that baby’s neck or attack one of these children.
Pythons aren't even native to the states, though people in the southern parts of the U.S. released them into the wild of the everglades when owning the animals became popular in the 1980s.
The creatures find their natural habitat in Asia, Africa, and Australia, per LiveScience.com.
The snakes and mice that were obtained from the residence are currently in the possession of the Sioux City Animal Adoption and Rescue Center.
A spokesperson told WHO13 that "they are working with the pet owner, the Sioux City Legal Department, and the Police Department to determine what will happen next with the animals."