Boys strangled by snake laid to rest
Posted August 10, 2013 2:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CAMPBELLTON, NB (NEWS1130) – Hundreds of people attended a funeral service today for two brothers who were killed by a python in Northern New Brunswick.
Four-year-old Noah Barthe and his six-year-old brother Connor were found dead Monday morning after a 45-kilogram African rock python escaped its enclosure in an exotic pet store.
Police say the snake slithered through a ventilation system located above the tank and fell through the ceiling into the living room where the boys slept. Preliminary results of autopsies show the boys were asphyxiated by the snake.
Many people in the city of 7,400 paid their respects during a visitation earlier in the day at a funeral home.
Campbellton Deputy Mayor Ian Comeau says the boys have been buried together in the same casket.
Provincial officials say the African rock python was not permitted in the province.
On Friday, 23 reptiles that were banned without a permit in New Brunswick were seized from the store, while four, large American alligators were euthanized.
The apartment and store are owned by Jean-Claude Savoie, a family friend of the boys who took them shopping and to a farm before hosting a sleepover Sunday along with his son.
Savoie has not returned repeated messages for comment.
During a stop in New Brunswick on Friday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his condolences to the family of the boys and said the federal government would review what happened to determine whether it should play a role in the regulation of exotic pet shops.
Comeau says Campbellton and other municipalities should await the outcome of the police investigation and not rush to judgment.
“We don’t want to make any decisions yet,” he says. “I know it is something that will be on the agendas of many, many municipalities … looking at what can be done to prevent such a tragedy.”
