A massive Burmese python that had been terrifying a Missouri neighborhood for days was shot dead after apparently preying on the locals' pet animals.
The 14-foot-long, 160-pound snake was killed at around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday in a rural area county, approximately 50 miles west of St. Louis.
The gigantic reptile was reportedly sighted roaming in rural Warren County at the same time three chickens and a pair of dogs disappeared.
Early Tuesday, Pauline Horstdaniel was awakened by her barking dog and that was when she spotted the python, USA Today reported.
The woman immediately told her husband about the snake.
"I was terrified. I got my husband out of bed. He's out there in his underwear with his gun," Horstdaniel explained.
She then called her husband's father, Clayton Dement, for help, and the latter fatally shot the animal with two blasts of his shotgun.
"I'm sure it was hungry and whatever else, so it was being a little more brazen in its actions as far as coming out and trying to get the dog and other animals around here," Mr. Dement reportedly said.
Burmese pythons are not normally found in Missouri; however, they can be purchased as exotic pets, according to Abc2. One Missouri Department of Conservation official said owners of the snakes have been known to dispose them into the wild when they get too large to handle.
The incident follows the captivity of a female Burmese python along a wildlife-watching trail in Everglades Park - the second biggest caught in Florida so far, Sky News has learned.
The 18-foot-3-inches, 133-pound reptile was caught on the Shark Valley tram road on July 9. It was euthanized and a necroscopy revealed that the animal's stomach was empty and it had not reproduced during the season.
There are approximately as many as 100,000 pythons in South Florida alone.
