A video of a man using his pet python as a weapon to assault another during a fight in Toronto, Canada, is going popular on social media. The strange encounter occurred on Wednesday around 11:50 p.m. in the Dundas Street West and Manning Avenue neighbourhood, according to CBC News.
The video depicts a man swinging his pet snake and striking someone in the middle of the roadway. The victim attempts to protect himself, but the man thrashes him with the snake. A Toronto Police van arrives seconds later, and police break up the brawl and order the males to lie down on the ground. In the meantime, the snake can be seen slithering away.
A Twitter page captioned the clip as ”Dude uses his pet snake as a weapon during a street fight in Toronto.”
In a statement released Saturday, police said they received a call about a man threatening people with a python snake and officers were dispatched to the area.
“There was a physical altercation and the man used the python to attack the victim,” police said in a news release.
The Toronto resident identified as Laurenio Avila, 45, was arrested and has been charged with assault with a weapon and causing unnecessary pain or suffering to an animal. He appeared in court on Thursday, May 11 via video link and was remanded into custody.
Since being shared, the video has garnered more than 14 million views, 43,000 likes and more than 5,000 retweets. Many called it animal abuse and asked authorities to take appropriate action against the man, while some said that they haven’t heard of or witnessed such a thing ever in their lives. Others were worried about the snake and its well-being.
One user reacted to the video and wrote, ”Animal abuse. I feel sick about people that keep snakes and birds as pets. It’s sickening, and this man needs to be prosecuted for abuse of that snake. I hate people.”
Another commented, ”I’ve seen some wild sh*t in my life but I can officially say I’ve never seen someone get beat by a snake before.”