Mom finds snake wrapped around baby's leg in crib

[WoodysGirl]

June 11, 2008, 10:31AM


BRENTWOOD, N.Y. — A woman who awoke to her baby's cries was shocked to peer into the crib and find a foot-long snake wrapped around her 7-month-old daughter's leg.

Cari Abatemarco said she was visiting family in the Long Island town of Brentwood last week when she made the startling discovery.

"Once I lifted her up and the snake fell off of her, she stopped crying. But then I was the one crying all night," Abatemarco told Newsday. She was in town from Troy, in upstate New York.

A relative removed the hissing snake from the crib with a back scratcher, and placed it in a bucket until animal control officers arrived. The child was unharmed.

The reptile, identified as a non-venomous California king snake, didn't belong to Abatemarco's family members. Officials say they don't know where the snake came from.

The animal is being cared for at a Long Island animal shelter.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/5831024.html

 

[PosterChild]

So it was a Rattler?

 

[the kid 05]

http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=80594&rendTypeId=4

forget that, i can't stand snakes, something shouldn't be able to move with no legs, arms or fins

 

[DallasFanSince86]

http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=80594&rendTypeId=4

forget that, i can't stand snakes, something shouldn't be able to move with no legs, arms or fins

You wouldn't have like going to my grandparents house a long time ago then. They used to have Boa Constrictors in the house, as pets. Of course all of the snakes have died now, but they did have one of them stuffed.

I tell you what when I was in elementary school the stuffed snake was the best thing to take in for show and tell.

 

[Danny White]

June 11, 2008, 10:31AM


BRENTWOOD, N.Y. — A woman who awoke to her baby's cries was shocked to peer into the crib and find a foot-long snake wrapped around her 7-month-old daughter's leg.

Cari Abatemarco said she was visiting family in the Long Island town of Brentwood last week when she made the startling discovery.

"Once I lifted her up and the snake fell off of her, she stopped crying. But then I was the one crying all night," Abatemarco told Newsday. She was in town from Troy, in upstate New York.

A relative removed the hissing snake from the crib with a back scratcher, and placed it in a bucket until animal control officers arrived. The child was unharmed.

The reptile, identified as a non-venomous California king snake, didn't belong to Abatemarco's family members. Officials say they don't know where the snake came from.

The animal is being cared for at a Long Island animal shelter.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/5831024.html

Maybe it's because I don't have a problem with snakes... but it cracks me up that this is even news.

It's especially funny that they say "they don't know where the snake came from." Uh, it probably came from outside.

I find little 12-18 inch long black rat snakes in my basement all the time, so I don't know why it's such a shock that a snake could find it's way inside your house. They can get in through the smallest cracks.

It's also funny that they're "caring for it" at an animal shelter. It's a freaking snake... it's not like it's a bald eagle... just lop it's head off or just chuck it back outside and let it fend for itself.

 

[heavyg]

I hate snakes with a passion. It is probably the one thing I am truely afraid of. I don't know what I would do in that situation. But I do know if I walked into a room of my house and a snake was there I would run out of the house screaming like a little girl

 

[HTownCowboysFan]

*shudders*

I. HATE. Snakes.

Biggest phobia I have next to the orange skinned, slicked-back hair, jumpsuit wearing, and gold chain-sporting "Giants Fan."

 

[ZeroClub]

I used to have a few as pets. I bred corn snakes once, maintained the eggs until they hatched, fed the hatchlings, and found them homes.

There's nothing scary about rat snakes, although I guess it'd suck to suddenly discover one wrapped around your infant daughter's leg.

 

[FloridaRob]

Only good snake is a dead snake. I won't stop long enough to determine if it is poisonous or not. If it crawls on the ground, I figure it is going to bite me and kill me and I will strike first.

Speaking of snakes, did any of you see this snake and toddler on youtube. Can you extract venom from a Cobra. This bothers me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oh0v_DHFrw

 

[Danny White]

Well, they're suing now.

Family says mattress packaging allowed snake into crib

BY PATRICK WHITTLE | patrick.whittle@newsday.com
June 11, 2008


While it remains a mystery how a California king snake slithered into the crib of a 7-month-old baby in Brentwood, the girl's family yesterday announced plans to sue the manufacturer and the retailer of a mattress they believe must have housed the reptile.

Brian Gunn, a Garden City attorney who represents the family of young Isabella LaScala, made the announcement in front of a scrum of news reporters who had descended on Isabella's grandparents' house yesterday.

Neither the manufacturer, Sealy, nor the retailer, Toys R Us, returned phone calls yesterday.

Isabella and her mother, Cari Abatemarco, who live in upstate Troy, were spending the night at Abatemarco's parents' Brentwood home last week when Isabella's cries woke her mother. Abatemarco said she responded and found the snake, which family members said was 4 feet long, wrapped around Isabella's leg. Isabella was unharmed. Islip animal control officers earlier had said it was a foot long.

The family, which says it bought the mattress at a Bay Shore Toys R Us, claims the snake got into the mattress package through a rip in its plastic wrap, Gunn said. The snake then embedded itself in the mattress by crawling inside a cloth covering that is loosely stitched to the mattress, he said.

Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said it is not uncommon for pet snakes to get loose and turn up on other residents' properties. The SPCA has picked up "about 93 different snakes and alligators over the last year," he said.

The snake the Abatemarcos found, he said, "most likely was somebody's pet and it got into the house. They don't like extreme heat."

The family has since returned the mattress, Gunn said.

 

[Danny White]

Only good snake is a dead snake. I won't stop long enough to determine if it is poisonous or not. If it crawls on the ground, I figure it is going to bite me and kill me and I will strike first.

Speaking of snakes, did any of you see this snake and toddler on youtube. Can you extract venom from a Cobra. This bothers me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oh0v_DHFrw

I believe they sew the snake's mouth shut... at least I think that's how it's usually done with the "snake charmers."

 

[Cajuncowboy]

The animal is being cared for at a Long Island animal shelter.

If that thing would have been in my house, it would have been beyond the "caring for" stage.

 

[Cajuncowboy]

Well, they're suing now.

The family, which says it bought the mattress at a Bay Shore Toys R Us, claims the snake got into the mattress package through a rip in its plastic wrap, Gunn said. The snake then embedded itself in the mattress by crawling inside a cloth covering that is loosely stitched to the mattress, he said.



How the heck does the family know this? Did they have a mini video camera watching the snakes every move?

We are such a sue happy country. Any chance to "get ours" and we jusp at the chance regardless of how ridiculous it is.

 

[timetopass]

I hate to admit this but I am terrified of snakes & am not sure I would have even been able to help this child get the snake off of her. I probably would have passed out. I just can't even breathe around them.

 

[Mavs Man]

A woman who awoke to her baby's cries was shocked to peer into the crib and find a foot-long snake wrapped around her 7-month-old daughter's leg.

Abatemarco said she responded and found the snake, which family members said was 4 feet long, wrapped around Isabella's leg. Isabella was unharmed. Islip animal control officers earlier had said it was a foot long.

How does fudging the truth help their case? A four foot long snake would not be wrapped around the baby's leg - it would be around it's entire body.

 

[Danny White]

How does fudging the truth help their case? A four foot long snake would not be wrapped around the baby's leg - it would be around it's entire body.

I noticed that too. That's a completely different situation if it's really 4 feet long.

A four foot long snake could conceivably kill a small enough baby, even if it was a non-venomous (and relatively docile) breed like the king snake or a rat snake. Those breeds are still powerful constrictors and a newborn could possibly be asphyxiated by one, although that would still be very unusual. Even adult king snakes typically feed on other snakes and small rodents, if I'm not mistaken. So a 12 or 15 pound baby would be quite a step up from that.

My suspicion is that it was closer to the original story, a 12 inch snake, which would be utterly and completely harmless. When I had 12-20 inch rat snakes as pets, I typically fed them "pinkies" which are small, frozen, newborn mice that are less than an inch long. My snakes needed to get bigger than 20 inches before they could even think of taking on something as big as a fully-grown mouse.

 

[Danny White]

The kingsnake in this video is about 4 feet long, and after looking at it, I take it back, there's no way even it could kill a 15 pound baby.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfRZraLcSg4&feature=related


Maybe a 4 foot python could crush it, but not a kingsnake.