Python’s Dinner Plans Were Not to His Owner’s Liking

A 12-foot, 60-pound python literally bit the hand that fed it Sunday afternoon.

Marina Ames, a 21-year-old secretary, was cleaning the python’s cage in her apartment when it may have mistook her hand for something akin to one of the two live rabbits it had been fed a few days earlier. Before she knew it, Ames said, the snake had grabbed about half her hand in its mouth and was attempting to swallow the rest.

“I knew he couldn’t eat me, but it hurt,” said Ames, who was given the snake by her brother when he left town. “I didn’t want him to bite my fingers off. It hurt the most when he started wrapping himself around my arm--that’s when I figured I needed some help.”

She stabbed the snake, whose name is Judice, with a kitchen knife and dialed 911. When police arrived, Ames said, Judice had let go of her hand and she had pinned his head to the floor with her foot.

Ames said her hand is “just a little stiff and sore.”

And the snake?

“Its fate is pending at this point,” said Sgt. Gary McErlain.

Explained Ames: “I’m not interested in him as a pet anymore.”