08/12/2014
The 120-pound snake is the prime suspect in the mysterious disappearance of several cats from a Florida neighbourhoodA Burmese python suspected of eating multiple cats from the same neighbourhood has been caught in the US, police say.The 12-foot-long snake was discovered resting in some waist-high underbrush by police in Port St. Lucie, Florida.Officers responded to reports of an “extremely large snake”, suspected of feasting on several neighbourhood cats, in an empty plot of land.A number of pet cats have mysteriously disappeared from the area over the past nine months, police say.Sergeant John Holman called for back-up after spotting the 120-pound, well-fed reptile close to a deceased cat on August 8.“Once I saw the size of it, I called for a few more officers,” he told WPBF. “I [was] not going to do that by myself.”Police say the python belongs to a Port St. Lucie resident with a special licence to keep the snake and are investigating how it escaped.Neighbour Denise Keel said: “I wondered what happened to all the little animals.“Some of the neighbours had a couple of snakes that they kept in one of those aquarium things.”Florida imposed a ban on the importation and sale of Burmese pythons in 2012.
