There’s Only One Known Case of a Boa Constrictor Killing a Human in the U.S.
A pet owner was killed by their own snake
Snakes have evoked fear in humans for thousands of years.
While it is true that some snakes are capable of killing people either with a venomous bite or through constriction, this fear persists even with smaller, harmless species, and this sadly results in the unnecessary killing of millions of these reptiles in the wild.
Another side effect of the irrational fear of snakes is that some species get banned as pets under dangerous “wild animal” laws.
Yes, it is true that larger snakes can cause human fatalities, and keeping them as pets is not entirely without risk.
However, cases of snake owners getting killed by their pets are exceedingly rare. There are, on average, 0 to 1 deaths caused by captive constrictor snakes per year in the United States.
This is the case despite the popularity of some larger snakes in the reptile trade, such as Burmese and reticulated pythons, which are both enormous species that have caused fatalities.
Boa constrictor species are also immensely popular in the reptile trade and can exceed 10 feet in length, technically large enough to kill humans.