Conservation officers confiscated a colossal — and illegal — snake near the Coney Island boardwalk after its owner tried to make it a sideshow attraction.
A Facebook post by the state Department of Environmental Conservation on Friday shows two of its environmental conservation (ECO) police officers suspending between them the massive, 12-foot-long serpent.
According to DEC, on July 12, ECO Maynard spotted the jumbo snake near the boardwalk as a crowd of around a dozen people, including small kids, were gathered around it. The man handling the snake and showing it off, who admitted to owning it, told the officer it was a Burmese python. At the same time, he also had a smaller snake, a ball python, draped around his neck.
According to DEC, Burmese pythons are deemed dangerous and are illegal to possess in New York State.
The rogue reptile’s owner received a ticket for illegal possession and the creature was promptly confiscated. ECO Grispin assisted with transferring the banned animal to the Nassau County SPCA.
According to DEC, in addition to being potentially dangerous to people, Burmese pythons — which are native to Southeast and Southern Asia — when let loose into the environment can severely impact local wildlife species.
The giant snakes, which can reach 20 feet long, have been known to wrap themselves around people and eat them, though infrequently, in places like Indonesia. But their favorite cuisine in the wild includes mice, rats and birds, for smaller portions, and deer, wild pigs and even alligators, for a big meal.
The news of the snake’s seizure last month was part of a summer roundup of DEC environmental control officers’ activities, ranging from crackdowns on undersized fluke poaching and abusive shark fishing to an officer’s rescue of a mother hen’s chicks from a Long Island storm drain.