Animal lover Daniel Brandon, 31, died from asphyxiation at his home near Basingstoke, Hampshire, on August 25. One of his 10 snakes, Tiny, who Brandon had owned for 16 years, was spotted out of her pen, hidden in a corner.<\/p>\n
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Brandon\u2019s mother told Basingstoke Coroners Court her son kept ten snakes and 12 tarantulas in their family home. She added that Brandon called Tiny his \u201cbaby.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Coroner Andrew Bradley said there was no doubt Brandon died \u201cas a result of contact with Tiny\u201d<\/em> and he recorded a verdict of misadventure. But he added that he does not believe Brandon\u2019s death occurred by way of aggression.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have nothing apart from Tiny so I have to accept she is instrumental in Dan\u2019s death.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI do not believe in any way it was aggression from Tiny nor a confrontation \u2013 if anything it was a show of affection, a moment of peace,\u201d<\/em> Bradley said.<\/p>\n The coroner added the snake had probably then hidden \u201cbecause of the shock of him falling or because of his reaction.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Pathologist Dr Adman al-Badri said there were no specific signs of strangulation on Brandon\u2019s neck, and that the asphyxiation diagnosis was only reached by exclusion.<\/p>\n Moreover, examination showed there were no scratches on the snake\u2019s skin either, which would indicate Brandon had struggled to pull the snake off.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n But Brandon\u2019s mother said her son was more cautious with Tiny than with the other snakes as he was aware of how strong she had grown.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was more wary of Tiny than the other snakes. He said she\u2019s very strong. <\/em><\/p>\n “He had stopped putting her round his neck because she was so strong and unpredictable.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n She later recounted in court the night of her son\u2019s death. She said had heard a loud bang from upstairs, but assumed it was a dumbbell which had fallen down or that he had knocked something.<\/p>\n But after calling him to dinner, she went upstairs to find him unconscious in his bedroom.<\/p>\n \u201cI went up and he was face down on the floor. He felt a little bit cold. There were 10 snakes and 12 tarantulas all away in the vivarium but I could not see Tiny.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAt that point I shook him to try and wake him up and called 999. Nobody saw Tiny until later; she had hidden under a box that Dan used to put all his snake stuff in and she had found a way under there and was coiled up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Paramedics arrived at their home eight minutes later but despite their best efforts, Brandon couldn\u2019t be saved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An 8ft African python that killed its owner may have constricted the man as a \u201cshow of affection\u201d rather than aggression, an inquest heard. Animal lover Daniel Brandon, 31, died from asphyxiation at his home near Basingstoke, Hampshire, on August 25. One of his 10 snakes, Tiny, who Brandon had owned for 16 years, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":345418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-345417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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