Abandoned python run over and shot

GRAND HAVEN, Mich., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A luckless Burmese python, possibly dumped by its owner in Michigan, was shot by a state trooper after being run over by a nervous driver.

Brian Ahlin told the Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle that he thought the 7-foot snake was a stick until it lunged at his Chevrolet Silverado. He said he ran it over because he was afraid his dog would jump out of the window and become a meal for the snake.

"I must have run over him 10 times and it didn't do anything," he said. "It was like running over a piece of rubber. He kept bouncing back with his jaws wide open. Let's just say, I wasn't going to stick my head out."

Tom Moore, who saw the encounter, called police. Trooper William Coons responded and decided, when he saw the enraged snake, that the only thing he could do was shoot it. He show it three times, the Chronicle said.

"In the eight years I have been a trooper, I've never responded to an animal complaint like this one," he told the newspaper.

A pet shop identified the snake as a Burmese python, Coon said. The pythons, some of the largest snakes, are popular pets but are often abandoned when they grow too large to handle safely and too expensive to feed.