13-Foot Python Seized from N.Y. Home After Owner Admits He Wasn’t Prepared for How Fast Snake Would Grow

The snake has been donated to Fort Rickey Discovery Zoo in Rome, N.Y.

A 13-foot snake was seized from a home in August and donated to a zoo after the snake's owner admitted he wasn't prepared for how fast the snake would grow.

Per a post on Facebook Tuesday, Sept. 3, by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC), Jeff Hull, an Environment Conservation Police Officer (ECO) seized the snake from a New York home while responding to a complaint of a "subject with a large snake that the complainant didn’t believe to be legal."

ECO Hull identified the snake from a photograph as a Burmese python by noticing it had an arrow-like design on its head. Per the DEC's post, that species is illegal in N.Y. without the proper permit.

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Upon arriving at the home, ECO Hull found that the snake (which weighed 80 pounds, measured 13 feet, 2 inches and was still growing) was being housed in a 4-to-5-foot tank. The reptile was in good health.

Per the Facebook post, the snake's unidentified owner said he "was not prepared for how fast the animal would grow and that he recognized he could no longer care for it."

The owner was given tickets for possession of wildlife as a pet and for possessing dangerous wildlife without a permit and the snake was removed from the home and donated to Fort Rickey Discovery Zoo in Rome, N.Y., which has the permits required to house the snake.

Related: Burmese 'Monster' Python Weighing 198 Lbs. Captured in Florida

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Per the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC), Burmese pythons are considered an invasive species in the state and are native to India, lower China, the Malay Peninsula and some islands of the East Indies.

The organization says that the largest Burmese python ever captured in Florida was 18 feet long, although the average size of the adult snake is 6 to 9 feet.

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