Woman Attacked, Bitten by Pet Python
A woman bitten by a 12-foot python in her El Toro home Sunday escaped serious injury when friends managed to cut the snake’s head off and pry it from her neck.
The 26-year-old woman, who was not identified, was taken to Saddleback Community Hospital in Laguna Hills, where she was treated and released.
Witnesses said the 9-year-old pet snake attacked when the woman draped it across her shoulders to feed it. The python sunk its teeth into the back of her neck.
“We grabbed at the snake and tried to pull it off her, but we just couldn’t,” said Thomas Hines, 23. “So I yelled for someone to get me a knife. (She) screamed . . . not to kill the snake because it was a pet.”
When paramedics arrived, some of the nonpoisonous snake’s teeth were still in the woman’s neck.
Observers said the snake might have attacked because the woman had been handling rabbits bought for the snake’s dinner, and it picked up the rabbit smell.
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