Pet python bites woman

SEBASTIAN, Fla. (AP) — A Treasure Coast woman was hospitalized after her 12-foot-long albino Burmese python bit her on the hand.

The unidentified woman told Sebastian police that she was trying to feed the reptile Thursday when it bit her hand and constricted around her arm. Indian County animal control officers responded a short time later to retrieve and euthanize the snake.

The woman’s husband took her to a nearby hospital for treatment. Pythons are not venomous, but one killed a two-year-old central Florida girl last year.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission began prohibiting the ownership of pythons as pets starting in July, but anyone who owned one before that was able to keep it.

Pythons have become an invasive species in Florida.