Cat-Eating 12-Foot Python Caught by Florida Police
Bad news: If your cat went missing in Port St. Lucie, Fla. recently, a 12-foot Burmese python probably ate it. Police have since apprehended the 120-pound snake, which was discovered hiding in waist-high brush, a cat's corpse rotting in an empty lot nearby.
According to the Palm Beach Post, the Burmese python was banned from being imported into the state in 2012. From WTSP:
Pythons are an invasive species in Florida, where researchers believe they are eating their way through populations of native mammals in the Everglades. No one knows exactly how many pythons there are here, but the population likely developed from pets released into the wild.
And according to the Christian Science Monitor, the Everglades has been facing a Burmese python infestation since last year, undoubtedly made more difficult by the fact that the snakes lay between 20–80 eggs every spring.
