Parents charged with child abuse, neglect after son's python attack
- From: "td" <tinydancer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:25:12 -0500
I posted a previous story about this snake attack below the current story.
Grandma is certainly playing it down now, but it sounded much worse in the
original story.
Parents charged with child abuse, neglect after son's python attack
KVBC-TV
updated 12:13 p.m. ET, Wed., Feb. 11, 2009
Weeks after a toddler escaped an attack from a pet python, his parents are
arrested. However, the boy's grandmother says the charges are unfair.
Tuesday, Metro Police announced that Melissa and Anthony Melendrez, the
boy's parents, face child abuse and child neglect charges in connection with
last month's snake attack. News 3's Gerard Ramalho has the reaction from the
family.
The boy's grandmother agrees the incident was very unfortunate. However, she
adds that police and some media have made the situation worse - and if they
boy's parents are convicted, the little boy is the one who will pay the
price.
To say it's been an eventful few weeks for three-year-old Jayden would
probably be an understatement. First he was bitten and squeezed by an
18-foot python. Now, his parents have been arrested, facing felony charges
of child abuse and neglect.
"(H)e's not hurt in any way, shape, or form," argues Patty Robsen, Jayden's
grandmother. "Dog bites have been ten times worse. He was not latched on to,
there were no lingering effects."
Robsen believes the charges are unwarranted and that the incident was simply
an accident. Her daughter and son-in-law were merely watching the snake for
a friend when it decided to bite.
According to Ken Foose, owner of Exotic Pets of Las Vegas, snakes are
actually popular pets and rarely cause serious injury.
"The fact is, in Clark County, it's not illegal to own any number of snakes,
regardless of size, as long as they're not venomous."
But Robsen believes her daughter's case has been exaggerated.
"It's because there was a lot of media attention brought onto this, and it
was sensationalized where they felt they had to do something," continues
Robsen.
She claims that the pictures with police officers posing with the python
haven't helped. Ken Foose agrees.
"I think the charges were filed mostly because this was caused by a snake
and not your run-of-the-mill house pet. But statistics show many more people
are injured by dogs than ever by reptiles."
Robsen says Jayden's skin was only slightly punctured and it was his mother
who was able to pry the animal off of the boy. The real tragedy, she says,
would be if prosecutors decided to send Jayden's parents to jail.
"This is being more traumatized and blown out of proportion than it really
needs to be."
The python was euthanized by Animal Control. Both of Jayden's parents are
charged with two felonies, the second because Jayden's five-year-old brother
was also home at the time of the attack.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29138223/
Jan. 22, 2009
Boy 'doing great' after python attack
By LAWRENCE MOWER
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
A 3-year-old boy who earlier this week was bitten and squeezed to the point
of unconsciousness by a snake nearly 18 feet long was doing fine Thursday.
The boy's grandmother said that her toddler grandson, after spending Tuesday
night in the hospital and taking two doses of antibiotics, is "doing great."
The grandmother, who gave her first name as Patty and declined to give her
last name, said her grandson entered the master bedroom of the family's
southwest valley apartment just after President Barack Obama's televised
inaugural address and hit the snake in the head with the door.
The female tiger reticulated python had escaped from its cage and the
bedroom door was supposed to have been locked, she said.
"She wasn't trying to hurt him," the grandmother said of the snake. "She was
just startled. She just instinctively, as a snake would do, coiled him."
The child's 25-year-old mother then grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the
snake 17 times, she said. The snake let go of the boy, who was unconscious,
and his mother began performing CPR while the snake started coiling around
her.
She revived her son and escaped the snake's grip.
"I'm so proud of my daughter," she said. "Her mother instincts kicked in."
Las Vegas police, who responded to the incident and carried the snake out of
the apartment, declined to comment on the case Thursday, citing an ongoing
investigation by the department's abuse and neglect detail.
The grandmother said the snake belonged to a strip club operator. Her
daughter's family was taking care of the snake while the strip club was
being renovated.
The family owns several snakes, according to the grandmother, although none
nearly as large as the python that coiled around the toddler.
"The snake was a good snake," she said. "Snakes, especially ones like this
that are bred in captivity, they don't have that hunting instinct that a
wild one would."
The python was taken to Lied Animal Shelter and euthanized because of its
deep wounds, according to Jim Seitz, the shelter's co-director of
operations.
The family's other snakes, which were seized by animal control officials,
are also being housed at Lied, Seitz said.
"We've gotten four or five calls already from people wanting to adopt them,"
Seitz said.
The grandmother said her daughter does not want the snakes back.
"It's a very traumatic situation," she said. "She feels horrible that it
happened, that there was even a chance that it could happen."
The toddler also had a few bite marks from the snake on his chest, but none
deep enough to require stitches, the grandmother said.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/breaking_news/38205089.html
.
- Prev by Date: Re: Police: Missing girl was abducted
- Next by Date: Caylee video
- Previous by thread: Nadya Suleman's Begging Site
- Next by thread: Caylee video
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
