17-foot python killed near Okeechobee hospital had lurked along area canal for years
Friday, July 31st, 2009 by Jason Schultz
It takes eight members of an animal hospital's staff to hold the python, caught on Wednesday. (Courtesy of Okeechobee Veterinary Hospital.)
OKEECHOBEE — It wasn’t quite the Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster, but a veterinarian this week killed a beast that had become something of a legend around the city.
“He’s been sighted by residents many times for the last couple of years,” Jennifer Van Buren said of the 17-foot-2-inch Burmese python that was killed Thursday behind the Okeechobee Veterinary Hospital, just outside the city.
The snake measured 26 inches in circumference and weighed 200 pounds when its carcass was pulled out of a canal behind the animal hospital, the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported.
A hospital veterinarian, identified by commission officials as Jim Harvey, shot the python.
(more…)
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