NYS DEC Officer Seizes Illegal Python and Finds it a New Home

Picture this: It's August 28th, 2024, and Environment Conservation Police Officer (ECO) Jeff Hull gets a call about a guy with an enormous snake that might not be legal.

After ECO Hull gets a look at the picture of the snake, he knows that it is a Burmese python. In the state of New York, it's illegal to have one of those bad boys without a permit.

Officer Hull wants to get to the bottom of this snake shenanigans so he goes to the complainant's house. Once there, he finds a 13-foot-long python (that is still growing) and it's crammed into a 4 to 5-foot-long tank. Talk about no leg room... a good thing that he doesn't have any.

The snake seems to be in good health, weighing in at  80 pounds and measuring an incredible 13'2". But wait, there's more: The person responsible for this snake actually admits to ECO Hull that they underestimated how fast this reptile would grow. They realized they couldn't handle the responsibility anymore and wanted to do right by the snake.

ECO Hull takes charge, seizes the snake, and decides to donate it to the Fort Rickey Discovery Zoo in Rome, where they have the permits to keep it. So what about the guy who thought that it was a great idea to have an illegal and potentially dangerous snake as a pet?

Get our free mobile app

Well, he ended up with tickets for possession of wildlife as a pet and possessing dangerous wildlife without a permit. At least the subject reported it and didn't just let it loose in the wild. Imagine finding that in your toilet one morning.