Seventeen-Foot Python Caught in Okeechobee

Here's the giant snake that's on the front page of every local news website, so why not ours too? Slow news day. As part of the insane/awesome new government initiative to kill every Burmese python in the wild, this 17-footer was caught yesterday in Okeechobee County. The beast weighed 207 pounds and measured 26 inches...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

July 31, 2009

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Here's the giant snake that's on the front page of every local news website, so why not ours too? Slow news day.

As part of the insane/awesome new government initiative to kill every Burmese python in the wild, this 17-footer was caught yesterday in Okeechobee County. The beast weighed 207 pounds and measured 26 inches around (two inches more than Hulk Hogan's famed 24-inch pythons).

It was later destroyed.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission launched the snake-huntin' program July 17 and so far has issued seven permits. Five snakes have been caught, and this one is by far the biggest. More permits are expected to be issued, and the program is scheduled to continue until October 31, at which point the FWC will decide whether to extend it. The Burmese pythons have been a threat to Florida's indigenous species, pets, and, in a sad recent case, a 2-year-old girl.

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