Python a target in child welfare case

Boaz the Burmese python has become the focus of a child welfare case in Canada.

Officials in British Columbia say they will get a court order to remove the 5m, 63kg snake from the home of Kerry-Ann Koop because Boaz could be a threat to her children, including a 3-year-old and two others under 2.

Gordon Hogg, the provincial Minister for Children and Families, said he had been told that a python like Boaz was unpredictable.

Koop, who takes Boaz to schools for education programmes, insists the python is safe. She says he is kept in an escape-proof enclosure and allowed out with the children only when an adult is around.