Florida Man Busted For Selling Snakes! What's Up With That?

by Rory Cripps | August 28, 2009 at 06:35 pm

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A New Port Richey Florida man, who resides only a few miles down the road from me, was busted for selling Pythons the other day. He claims, "I was selling them for around $175, . . . We can't even pay our bills right now, so every dime was going to them, just to pay the house payment and electric."

Well that's just great . . . now Americans have to resort to selling snakes, because the economy sucks as bad as it does!

I know a number of people that raise snakes in New Port Richey Florida. And I'm running into more and more of them. I know one fella whose snakes were stolen a few years ago and he was on the local news as a result. I know another fella that has a twenty-foot Anaconda. I know another fella that goes on Rattle Snake hunts and thinks nothing of grabbing hold of Rattlesnakes (with his bare hands) should one appear in his backyard.

NEW PORT RICHEY — Twelve illegally owned pythons have been seized at a New Port Richey home by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigators.

Investigators say Bradley Dean, 19, and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Izabela Borczyk, were selling albino Burmese pythons and reticulated pythons on craigslist.com from Dean's parents' house in New Port Richey.

Last year, I watched a bare-footed young man taunt a six-foot Rattlesnake with a broom-stick in the middle of the road as I was entering my sub-division. It was the first time that I've heard a Rattlesnake rattle its rattle other than in the movies and at reptile shows. And I've come across plenty of Rattlesnakes in their natural environment throughout the years. The snake-taunting young man managed to get the Rattler on the end of his stick, and at the same time, a woman in a Volkswagen, with three small kids in the car and her windows rolled down, almost wound up with a very pissed-off Rattlesnake thrashing about the interior of her vehicle. Had she been driving a bit faster, I have no doubt that a 911 call would have been placed. The Rattler wound up slithering into some poor soul's backyard and the cops, that just happened to be passing by, went looking for the reptile with their Glock's at the ready . . . .

Acting on a tip, a FWC investigator contacted the couple through craigslist.com and made a deal to buy snakes. On Wednesday, officials said, he made a deal with Dean to buy four pythons.

Wildlife officials seized the other eight snakes after that. All 12 pythons are being housed at Mr. Weebee's Pet World in New Port Richey. Officials said Dean will be required to come in each day and clean their cages.

I scrupulously avoid snakes: They're all over my back and front yard--poisonous and non poisonous. They crawl into my garage and slither under my feet at times. I've spent hours driving them out of my garage for fear they'd enter my home and slither into my daughter's bed. They stick their heads up and greet me often times at the most unexpected moments. Little Pygmy Rattlesnakes have attempted to bite at my ankles. I've even turned around while doing yard-work, and sure enough, a Cotton Mouth that snuck up on me was coiled up, sensing my every move, only a few feet away.

Fish and wildlife officials seized 12 pythons from a New Port Richey home Wednesday night.

According to officials, investigators found eight Burmese pythons and four reticulated pythons inside the house at 3632 Haven Drive.

The snakes ranged in size from four to nine feet long.

Bradley Scott Dean, 19, has been cited on second-degree misdemeanor charges of possession of reptiles of concern without a permit, failure to present a valid wildlife dealer's license and failure to microchip the snake.

I don't understand the growing fascination that many Americans have with snakes nowadays. I don't understand why many Americans allow snakes to slither around their homes. I don't understand why Americans treat snakes as domesticated and loyal pets--the way that dogs and cats are treated.

And what I really don't understand is why the public school system, here in Florida, allows snake-advocates to stand up in school auditoriums, adorned by various snakes wrapped around their body and around their hands, to tell grammar school children that snakes are not to be feared and they are your friends. That's great advice . . .and when a ten-year-old wants to make friends with a Cottonmouth, that's hanging out in the backyard, because some snake-advocate, at school, told him that snakes are his friends, the ten-year old has a good chance of losing a limb or worse as a result.

Dean said he started selling the snakes because his family was out of work, and he needed a way to pay the bills.

"I was selling them for around $175," he said. "We can't even pay our bills right now, so every dime was going to them, just to pay the house payment and electric."

Dean would have been able to continue selling the snakes if he had spent $100 to buy a permit and had the snakes implanted with microchips.

Much attention has been paid to pythons in recent months. In July, a 12-foot Burmese python strangled a toddler in Sumter County.

Court documents show the parents did not have the snake properly caged. They are now facing charges in connection with the little girl's death.

OXFORD — This is how 2-year-old Shaiunna Hare died: The little girl was slowly crushed to death by an 8 ½-foot albino Burmese python that crept into her crib, coiled around the child and bit her again and again as it squeezed the life out of her.

This is who authorities now blame for Shaiunna's death: her own mother.

Jaren Hare and her live-in boyfriend, Charles Darnell, were arrested Monday on charges of third-degree murder, manslaughter and child abuse.

Interviews with family members and friends revealed that the snake was not kept in a secure enclosure, as mandated by law, and escaped repeatedly even before the girl's death on July 1, authorities said.

After the girl's death, the snake was described as a family pet. Previous reports said Darnell, who is not Shaiunna's father, was the owner.

But now authorities say the snake actually belonged to Hare.

The morning Shaiunna died, the boyfriend awoke to find the pet snake missing from its enclosure.

It was not the first time. Just hours before, Darnell had found the snake loose in the living room, he later told investigators.

"The baby's dead," a sobbing Darnell told a 911 operator. "Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby."

American sub-cultures are expanding and becoming more varied. It is an indication that Americans are becoming more and more alienated and divorced from the American cultural core. And, in my opinion, it's an indication that Americans are sick and getting sicker.

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