Found A Severely Abused Burmese Python Today

[IcyWolf]

This is going to be long and I apologize, some of you that are on my facebook already know.

We got a call today from a friend of ours that does dog rescue. A friend of hers had seen a large boa or python loose by the river. They went and picked her up and brought her to our house for me to look at her. She turned out to be about a 8-9ft burmese python that was severely abused. She had a stab wound in the side of her neck, a large chunk of skin was cut out of her side and she even had a microdermal implant crudely placed in her back. I called my herp vet and scheduled an appointment for 7:30pm, the earliest available. After I got of the phone we realized that the wound in her neck was very bad and I called back and told them we would be coming in for an emergency appointment. We took her in, she weighed 21lbs and was super sweet. She curled around the vet and even laid her head right on the vets cheek. The vet confirmed that this was absolutely, without a doubt a case of animal cruelty. They anesthetized her and placed her in an incubator so they could keep her warm and examine her wounds more closely.

After about an hour or so they came back and told us the unfortunate prognosis, the stab wound in her neck went the entire way through and came out the bottom, it pierced her trachea and esophagus and there was nothing that could be done. If her trachea and esophagus hadn't been compromised she would have been able to be rushed into emergency surgery but the vet said that with as slow as snakes heal and the severity of the injuries that surgery would just be too cruel and painful and probably wouldn't be successful.

We had no choice but to have her humanely euthanized, with snakes they like to watch them for 24 hours after the euthanasia but we will be able to pick her up tomorrow and we will be burying her at our home.

We have contacted the local news stations and the police(still waiting to hear back) and we are doing everything we can to find the sick people that did this to this poor creature.

I know times are tough for everyone but if anyone can help we have set up a chip-in page to try to pay for the $200 vet bill for her. I didn't post this to beg for money by any means, but if anyone can help, it is very appreciated.

I'm so upset right now, she was such a sweet snake, we were really hoping she would pull through with surgery but she was just too injured. I hope we can find who did this, it's just disgusting. We have many pictures of her but I will not post them here unless you guys really want me to, they are VERY graphic. If anyone would like to see them they are all publicly posted on my facebook page, you can find them here, but like I said, it isn't pretty.
Feathers-First Aviary | Facebook
Facebook
There are also more that I was tagged in but are not in my album.

Chip-in link, sorry for the typos and lack of picture, the girl that set the page up was posting from her phone and in a hurry.
http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/efc074c30adcf33c

 

[mele]

This is realy upsetting. I have lg snakes and they are such amazing animals and make incredible pets. I don't understand how anyone could do such a thing

You are so good to have tried to help her at least she was met with some kindness before she died.

 

[IcyWolf]

I have also made a craigslist ad, please share it if you can.
Tortured Burmese Python Found Near Susquehanna River

It looks as if we have raised $50 of the $200 already, we are very grateful for all the help, we are all very strapped for cash ourselves but we just couldn't sit around and not even try to save her.

We are having some trouble finding the correct link for the chip in page, the first link I posted keeps saying $25 while this one says $50 ChipIn: My Widgets

 

[roxynoodle]

That's very upsetting for me to hear. There is just no reason to do something so cruel. If someone didn't want her anymore, surely someone would have taken her as she was a valuable animal, and with a sweet disposition.

These are the reasons I don't watch the news anymore. I can't handle stories of child abuse or animal abuse anymore. It just breaks my heart.

Thank you for doing what you did for her, and I wish it could have had a better outcome. You are very kind.

If it weren't for the huge vet bills I have had for Merlin, I would help you with this. I had someone dump a Dalmatian puppy with Parvo on me and I had to pay for his euthanasia as well. I came home from work and he was in my driveway. It was obvious he was very ill and I rushed him to the vet to find out there was no hope for him. I sat there in the vet's office crying for a dog I had only known for an hour, when some horrible person didn't vaccinate their dog and then just dumped it when it got sick.

 

[IcyWolf]

Roxy I know you are up to your ears in vet bills as well, and for a bird you were trying to give a good home to. We are all very shocked and upset by all of this. Nick, my fiance, is taking it very hard, he was wanting to adopt her after she got fixed up and I had to tell him the bad news. He stayed home with the birds and dog and couldn't go to the vet.

To top it all off, we went to a concert on saturday night and he had someone fly head first into his already deformed(since birth) elbow. We spent all of last night in the hospital as they relocated his elbow. It was so bad that they had to give him percocet, hydromorphine and even anesthetize him just to reset his arm. They did at least 10 xrays and it was an emergency visit, he has no insurance so we are just waiting to see what that is going to cost. Ugh, never a dull moment.

 

[FutureDVM]

I don't even know what to say... That is just so incredibly sad

 

[roxynoodle]

Oh, crap, IcyWolf, I'm so sorry to hear about Nick's elbow. When it rains, it pours, doesn't it? I have health insurance and I'm getting killed with medical bills. Because of Merlin I haven't gone to have my hip checked or gotten the surgery I need for female reasons. I'm very sorry to say you may want to cry when you get those bills :-(

Maybe I'll buy a lottery ticket this week. If I won, I'd pay your bills, too.

 

[kc_y0]

This is horrible, how cruel are people, I hate them. Most of them anyway. The poor snake. :'(

 

[BillsBirds]

Having been in Animal Welfare & Rescue, I have seen more than my share of things like this. Thank you for helping her out. I'm sorry, but, with my health issues, last years hospital bills, minimal disability check, etc. I cannot contribute. But, know that I share your disgust of the people who could do something like this. I finally had to retire because I could not take one more abused dog, ingrown collar, starved horse, half dead cat or naked, plucked bird. I could not smell the stench of parvo, or look of rain rot, or stand in court, silently listening to these ignorant, nasty people trying to defend their actions (or inactions). Bless you, and others, who help our poor, unfortunate fellow creatures. Okay, my rant is over.

 

[luvmytooo]

Icy,
Thank you for saving that poor creature from a horrible death. Because of you and your other half she was able to die with dignity.
I hope the people that did this burn in hell for it. And even that is too good for them.

 

[IcyWolf]

Great news! The York Daily Record, our biggest local newspaper, just contacted me, I think they want to run the story, they are going to call me in the morning, I also contacted all 4 of our local news stations so hopefully they will pick up the story as well. The place where the snake was found is a very small town so hopefully we can find the culprits that did this. It's just so disturbing, they literally cut a piece of skin off of her side, we can only assume that they wanted to keep it as some sort of sick trophy so hopefully they are stupid enough to have "bragged" about this to some of their friends, we can only hope that at least one of them is kind hearted enough to tell us who did this.
We are also in the process of file a report with the police but they aren't being the most cooperative with returning our calls and we are getting a bit of a run around but we aren't giving up so easily!

 

[cdog]

That's just awful that someone would do that to a poor creature. It makes me so angry when people abuse animals. I hope you find the sick people who did this. I consider an animals life just as important as a humans life is, and who ever did this should get the same punishment!

 

[Remy]

How awful! I hope that they catch whoever did this. People like that are usually repeat offenders... D:

I tried to click the link to send a donation, but it didn't work for me...

 

[IcyWolf]

We are working with the vet and the police to try and find out who did this. My ad has gotten flagged twice on craigslist, I'm not sure if it's someone just being obnoxious or if maybe it is one of the people involved that's removing it. Either way, we are not giving up.

Thanks to everyone that has donated, we have already raised a third of the total vet bill! And we haven't even gotten any media coverage yet, so I'm hopeful that we can raise the money. I'm having a bit of a problem with this chip in link, but for anyone that is interested, try this one ChipIn: My Widgets

Once again, thank you to everyone for your help and support, it really does mean a lot.

 

[Remy]

It's probably the ****ers that did that who are flagging it! I can't imagine why else somebody would do that!

Okay, I was able to do it. I just found a paycheck from November that somehow never made it to my bank! It's spent already (Puck vet bills + late car registration + other stuff), but I feel like I should share a little, since my load has been eased a bit.

 

[IcyWolf]

Thank you so much for your help Remy!

I was thinking the same thing, I know posted ads like that aren't technically allowed but, come on, I didn't post anything graphic in the ad and it's not hurting anyone. It has to be either someone that really doesn't like snakes, one of the people involved, or someone that's just trying to be obnoxious, this will be the third time I've reposted, ugh.

 

[Remy]

That's lame! I'd keep reposting it!

I just saw the pictures on your FB. Poor snakey. At least it got a humane death...

 

[IcyWolf]

It really does make me feel better that she at least got to go in a nice warm incubator while already under anesthesia, and she even got to experience humans being nice to her for once. Much better than slowly dying alone by the side of the river. The temps dropped down to 34 degrees tonight so she surely would have froze to death had she not been found.

The really upsetting thing though is that she really was a sweet snake. The vet just kept saying how upsetting it was that such docile snake had to be put through such torture, it's just so sad.

I have become completely inspired by the huge response of support we have been getting from so many people. I've never had so many notifications on my phone as I did today, between people commenting and messaging me on facebook, emailing and texting me, all about this snake that most had not even met, it was really touching. I guess I didn't really expect anyone to care since she was a snake, but boy, was I wrong. I've even had a lot of people that admitted they don't particularly care for snakes(including my friend's husband that drove us to the vet) that were completely outraged by this. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to reinvigorate your hope for people.

 

[luvmytooo]

You got that right Icy ! It takes a horrible experience like this to reinvigorate our hope in the human race.....
There is a special place in heaven for you
I am happy that the snake ( you should give her a name since her story will be on the news , maybe Hope ? ) experienced a gentle touch and warmth she should have known well during a long healthy life.
RIP poor baby.

 

[osnyder]

Thank you so much for your love and care for a very special creature. Snakes are amazing, magical animals.