image from Iowa County Sheriff facebook page of Burmese found in WI

Last friday in rural Wisconsin, a large Burmese python was discovered by the side of a road by a resident and police were notified. An investigation was launched and every rescue in Wisconsin was contacted by press. Seriously, the minute I saw the story, I had a text come through my phone asking if I was available and if I could bring reptiles with for the news piece.

By midday, the owner had been located and the full story emerged. The snake had gone to the vet and died there from an as of yet unknown medical emergency. The owner decided that he was going to take the snake home and bury it rather than let the vet dispose of it. In my opinion, this was likely due to the cost of cremation for the size of the snake and is somewhat understandable, HOWEVER, the owner should have continued with his initial plans rather than pulling over on a highway and tossing the snake out on the side of the road.

There are numerous issues here. First and foremost, it was a freaking Burmese Python, a non-native snake and it scared a lot of people. I am a certified euthanasia tech, so my next question is, was the snake euthanized with serum or did it die on it's own? This is an important question because if there was serum involved, leaving the corpse in the wild would subject any scavenger to the same poison injected to induce death in the pet. So basically it would kill all scavengers as well if it was humanely euthanized. This is why you can not bury euthanized animals and they MUST be cremated. The next question is what was the medical emergency? Was is something bacterial or viral? Was it a pathogen that could be passed to our native species?

So what do you do when your reptile dies? Check your local laws now. Where I am in Wisconsin, many municipalities actually allow disposal of animals (yes even dogs and cats) in your trash cans when properly bagged. If you choose to bury it, do it on your own property and only if it was not given the euthanasia serum (that is sodium pentobarbital and it is poison) and be sure to go down several feet. Your vet can arrange a variety of cremation options. Lastly there is the option of your local humane society. Seriously, even if you can not afford things, reach out. They will still help. They may grumble or groan but they will help. Heck, consider even reaching out to herp societies or reptile rescues. In all seriousness, I would have asked him to bag and freeze it, but I could have found it a home in education or research.

DO NOT DO WHAT THIS OWNER DID.

This one incident may have spurned a whole lot of potential laws in our state that we do not want. Wisconsin is one of the few states that still does not have statewide regulations on reptiles, something we have been strongly fighting for many years. This decision by this one owner impacted every single reptile owner in the State of Wisconsin and will also impact others across the country. This made national news and law makers WILL use this. I am still stunned that I spent more time on a dead Burmese python than I have any live one in the past 20 years of my rescue! BTW, you can check out the news story I was on with Bill Stewart of WPS Reptiles and Badgerland Reptile Rescue here.