A Covedale man is explaining the circumstances surrounding his call for help when the late night feeding of his boa constrictor went wrong. Mike Simpson called Monday morning asking for help with his pet snake. He spoke with Local 12's Shawn Ley about the incident and why he won't be welcoming the snake back into his home.
911 call: "We can't get him out of our bathroom and back in the cage. He's way too aggressive. He's striking and everything."
That 3 a.m. call to 911 is about a 6 foot boa constrictor named "Lucious" who it's owner says turned aggressive during it's late night rat feeding. The snake was in a bathtub, the owner afraid of it - and turning to police for help.
911: "I'm not sure what we're going to be able to do here."
Michael Simpson/Snake's Owner: "Oh yeah, feeding time's always been a challenge like I says he's 6 and a half feet long and he's about 5 inches around."
Michael Simpson bought the snake from a friend a few months ago, saying it was so docile, the children in his apartment grew to love it. Family friends have no problems with their children near it.
But Simpson says this pet's behavior scared him last night, and now he admits the snake is too much to handle. Michael Simpson "He's too big. If he was to get around one of us we wouldn't be able to get him off in time."
Two years ago a Camp Dennison man was strangled by his pet python. Animal experts saying snakes can be unpredictable.
Andy Mahlman/SPCA Cincinnati: "If you don't know what you're doing you have no business with it. Especially if you have children and we see situations like that, children, snake on the floor out of the cage ... that's a bad deal. With any other pet you have to be a responsible pet owner."
Simpson: "He's too big for me to have out around the kids, I won't do it i'm not going to endanger the kids."
Snakes aren't loyal to owners, but owners are loyal to them - Simpson says he's getting another snake - this time a smaller one. How did police handle the snake? The officer that arrived is a snake lover and with the snake acting aggressive towards it's owner - the officer simply grabbed it and put it in a box.
The SPCA tells us the Cincinnati Herpetological Society now has the snake. It's a reptile rescue organization that will place the snake with one of it's members. The SPCA Cincinnati says there are no exotic pet ordinances that ban the keeping of snakes as pets.
