Florida Coughs up 18-Foot-Long Python. BBQ, Anyone?

Yesterday was a kind of a big day in the Everglades

OK, in case you had any doubt, here is why people should not “humanely” dump unwanted pets in local waterways or other habitats.  It’s 18.2-feet-long, and it didn’t get that way eating feeder mice.

Here’s Megan Gannon’s story from Livescience

Florida officials say they’ve bagged one of the biggest Burmese pythons ever found in the state: an 18.2-foot-long (5.5 meters) female weighing some 150 pounds (68 kilograms).

The snake, which was shot and killed in the Everglades on Tuesday (Feb. 4), could set a record for the largest Burmese python ever seen on state-owned lands, said Randy Smith, a spokesperson for the South Florida Water Management District.

The animal, however, measures a few inches shorter than the longest-ever Burmese python found in Florida: a snake that stretched 18 feet, 8 inches (5.6 meters) long and was wrangled by a man on the side of the road in a rural part of Miami-Dade County in May 2013.