When you think of a family pet, images of a furry dog, a cat, or some goldfish that you'll have to flush in three days might come to mind. But who needs those ordinary companions when you can have your very own domesticated constrictor slithering through the halls? Dad Ed Taoka shared a Facebook video of his little girl casually hanging out with the family's 12-foot-long python, and it's giving the Internet a heart attack no chill pill can tame.
Taoka's video shows his 4-year-old cuddled up on the couch with Cher, the family's reticulated python -- just watching TV like it's NBD.
Cher is one of two pythons the Taokas are proud to call a family pet. The other snake is aptly named Sonny.
As you can see, Ed's daughter and Cher clearly look unbothered -- but that hasn't done much to calm the fears of people online.
"My daughter is perfectly safe," Taoka writes in his now viral Facebook post. "Interaction with any animal and child must always be supervised."
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The video features a big "yawn" from Cher, which many say proves the snake is "sizing up" the child like prey.
But Taoka says that's not the case.
"Neither snakes have any desire to bite or eat us," Taoka writes in his post. "Do you know what this snake loves to eat? Rats. She loves rats. Won't eat anything else."
Glad we got that sorted out!
Since the controversial video hit Facebook, the Internet has wasted no time in sounding off.
The criticism got so bad, Taoka even had to take down his video.
There are, however, at least a few people coming to this dad's defense.
Though the sight of one of the world's largest snakes chillaxing with a child might make you cringe, this dad says there's no reason to worry.
"These are tame (by dictionary definition), captive bred, pet snakes," Taoka clarifies in his Facebook post. "They have been handled nearly every day – multiple times a day since they were babies. There are more dangerous issues with other animals such as dogs and horses to children than non-venomous snakes."
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Here's another video of Taoka's daughter playing with their snake so you can decide for yourself.
