'We're Free To Go Outside Again': Neighbors Relieved As 9-Foot Burmese Python Captured In Quiet Kendall Neighborhood
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A group of Kendall residents is breathing a sigh of relief after a 9-foot Burmese python was captured and killed after it had been seen slithering around their neighborhood for days.
"It was super scary," explained Vianney Ferguson. "We have a neighborhood chat and we were all talking about it as it was happening."
Ferguson says the snake was first spotted crossing the road a couple of days ago near 9240 SW 91st Street in Cherry Grove Park, just west of Baptist Hospital in Kendall.
But Wednesday night, a neighbor spotted the unwanted visitor on 9400 SW 91st Street, not far from where it was originally spotted.
Neighbors immediately called a licensed snake hunter while they monitored and tracked the giant reptile.
It's not known if the snake was wild or someone's pet.
"It seems that someone released this snake or it could have escaped, but it was 9 feet long, how can you miss something like this gone from your home? We believe someone let it loose after it grew too big. No one has claimed the snake in our chat and I don't think they will," said Ferguson.
The reports of the giant snake slowing moving through their quiet neighborhood kept residents on edge.
"For days, none of us wanted to go outside and we put all our animals inside the house keeping them safe. I personally was trying to put up Christmas decorations and lights but when I heard this snake was loose in our neighborhood, I delayed it," said Ferguson. "I have a 110 pound American Bulldog and a 6-year-old daughter. I literally would run inside my house after I came home from work and would jump if I heard strange noises coming from the bushes which could have easily been a lizard or something."
Ferguson wants to be sure that anyone who releases a pet snake "be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
As for this snake, it was captured and killed by the licensed snake hunter.
"We are free to go outside again and I'm extremely relieved that I can continue to put up my decorations without fear."
Burmese pythons are not protected in Florida except by anti-cruelty law. Pythons can be killed on private property with landowner permission and can also be killed year-round and without a permit on 22 public lands in south Florida. The FWC encourages people to humanely kill wild caught pythons whenever possible.