Woman Suffers Cuts as Her Python Bites Hand That Feeds It

When house pets decide to get ornery, they can do it in a big way, a Canyon Country woman discovered Thursday.

The woman’s pet, an 18-foot python, seized her hand and wrist in its mouth and coiled its powerful body around her arm, Los Angeles County firefighters said.

The woman, whose name was not released by authorities, was treated at the scene for cuts. She was later admitted to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, where a hospital spokeswoman described her condition as “not serious.”

Firefighters involved in the rescue said the woman was trying to feed the python two live rabbits in its cage when the nonpoisonous snake tried to swallow 10 to 12 inches of her hand and arm.

They said the woman was in pain but remained calm, sitting on the edge of an overstuffed chair throughout her predicament.

‘All I Could See Was Coils’

“When I arrived at the scene, all I could see was coils wrapped around her arm,” said firefighter Frank Prestia, who was the first to enter the woman’s home. “I called for backup.”

“She stated that, No. 1, the snake knows humans don’t taste good,” he said. “She felt he was being ornery or cranky.”

“Her feelings at the time were, ‘If it’s my hand or the snake, kill the snake,’ ” Prestia said. But Prestia, joined by a sheriff’s deputy, two paramedics and two ambulance attendants, decided that trying to kill the animal was too risky.

Instead, they lifted the woman’s arm and the snake from the cage, hoping it would feel less threatened outside and and ease its grip.

The plan worked.

Owner Released

The python released its owner, letting Prestia grab its head while the other rescuers held onto the rest of the reptile’s body. They then wrestled it back into the cage.

Paramedics cleaned and bandaged the woman’s wounds, and a friend drove her to the hospital, firefighters said. The rescue took about 20 minutes.

Fire Capt. Mike Mathis said rescue teams frequently treat people who have been bitten by rattlesnakes in the Canyon Country area, but that this was the first rescue involving a python.

“He’s resting comfortably,” Mathis said of the 18-foot pet. “He’s at home in his cage doing what he does normally.”