Wildlife officials charge owner of Delilah, the 18-foot python

A python named Delilah was moved by Florida Wildlife officials to a temporary home when his cage near Lake Apopka, Fla., was deemed unsuitable on Friday, Sept., 11, 2009. Brother of the owner, Melvin Cheever, left, and snake man Sam Floyd, right, wrestle the snake out into a carrying cage. She had escaped in the past. The 16 year old snake was measured at 18' long and 30" around. She will be moved to a snake handler in Bushnell, Fla. (GEORGE SKENE, ORLANDO SENTINEL / September 11, 2009)

Anthony Colarossi

Sentinel Staff Writer

5:48 p.m. EDT, September 18, 2009
APOPKA - Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have criminally charged the owner of Delilah, the 18-foot-python removed from an Apopka area backyard enclosure last week.

Robert David Cheever, 39, has been charged with unsafe housing of a reptile of concern, a second degree misdemeanor, according to Joy Hill, an FWC spokeswoman. Within 30 days Cheever can either pay a mail-in fine of $316 to the Orange County Clerk of Courts or request a day in court, Hill said in a statement.

He was also issued a warning for failing to have a reptile of concern permit and no PIT Tag, the identifying microchips inserted into such snakes.
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Wildlife officials charge owner of Delilah, the 18-foot python

400 pound Python "Biggest we've ever seen" caught in Apopka Florida

Officials capture snake in Apopka Friday.


Wildlife Officials: Biggest Python We've Ever Seen
Owner Apparently Does Not Have Permit
POSTED: 4:40 pm EDT September 11, 2009



APOPKA, Fla. -- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials were at a home in Apopka to remove "a very large Burmese python" on Friday afternoon,


Officials on the scene said it was the biggest snake they had seen in 15 years -- measuring more than 20 feet and weighing more than 400 pounds.

Its name is Delila.

The owner told a neighbor the snake was 34 inches around, said commission spokeswoman Joy Hill
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Killer python owner: 'It was a terrible, awful accident'

Killer python owner: 'It was a terrible, awful accident'
In his first interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Charles Darnell said he has been stricken by grief in the month since the family's pet Burmese python suffocated his girlfriend's 2-year-daughter in her crib in a rural community about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.

Anthony Colarossi

Sentinel Staff Writer

6:41 PM EDT, July 31, 2009


Almost a month ago, a pet Burmese python escaped from its enclosure in a rural Sumter County home and suffocated 2-year-old Shaiunna Hare as she slept in her crib.

The attack made international headlines and became a convenient tragedy for politicians and bureaucrats to use as they called for organized hunts of wild Burmese.

But for Charles Darnell and his girlfriend Jaren A. Hare, the loss was indescribable.

The last month left them mourning a child they loved, questioning themselves for becoming so trusting of the snake and worrying if criminal charges will come.

Darnell, 32, spoke Friday in his first interview with the Orlando Sentinel.

He said the child's death has altered his life forever and made him a "monster" in the eyes of many around the world and in his tiny town Oxford, 60 miles northwest of Orlando.
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It was a terrible awful accident

Woman killed by pet 13-foot python

Woman killed by pet 13-foot python
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- A Virginia Beach woman appears to have been killed by a pet reticulated python while she was trying to give the 13-foot snake medication.

Amanda Ruth Black's husband found her body Tuesday night when he came home, The Virginian-Pilot reported. She was lying in front of the snake's empty cage.
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