A Collier County man is recalling an incident that has gone viral on social media.
Scott Dame discovered a 12 foot python wrapped around his goat, the snake swallowing the goat's head. He shot it with his .45 caliber pistol 8 times.
"The first time I shot it, I shot it in the head, and I thought that did it, but he just recovered and took off."
Dame had to step on the snake's tail before finishing it off. Dame says another one of his goats had been missing for several weeks and he suspected the snake got that one too.
"A snake that big has no business being here."
Dame would know, he runs a pest control business that also removes reptiles.
"I've dealt with lot of snakes, rattlesnakes and water moccasins, and everything else, but I've never had to deal with a snake that big."
Dame's quick thinking couldn't be more timely since he believes floodwaters around his home from this week's storms would have made the python impossible to find.
"I'm pretty confident I got the animal that was eating my goats."
Dame says he's taken some heat on social media for shooting the python, but he makes no apologies about it.
