One father is being blasted because of a video showing his baby in the grip of a giant python. INSIDE EDITION talked to the dad who thinks the video is “cute."
It's shocking video of a 9 foot long python coiling itself around a baby!
The terrifying video was shot by her own dad. The huge python crawls over the 14-month old baby girl's head and wraps around her tiny legs!
The baby's father told INSIDE EDITION, "I let them interact. I thought it was a very cute moment so I shot some video."
Watch the Terrifying Video
When he posted the video online there was an immediate and furious response.
"This moron is one irreponsible father," said one post. "Why would he put his kids at risk?" asked another. One critic warned that if the python chose to attack, "she wouldn't stand a chance."
Jamie Guarino said he's an experienced snake handler and knew what he was doing. He has a YouTube channel, Snakehunters TV, and has raised the Burmese python, called Nay-Nay, since it was an egg.
"I'm not at all surprised about the controversy. I am surprised about the overwhelming hate comments about me being a bad father," he told INSIDE EDITION.
Jamie then said, "In the wild, Burmese pythons will bite their prey, constrict it, squeeze them to death and swallow it whole."
All the more reason why playing like this with Nay-Nay should be a no-no. But Guarino insisted his daughter, Alyssa, was never in any danger.
Jamie told INSIDE EDITION, "Here's the part where everyone's freaking out but the snake only weighed 25 pounds at that time. I was the person filming a foot away and i've had years of experience and i could have stopped any bad situation."
We showed the video to zoologist and TV host Jarod Miller.
He said, "I think this particular decision to have a small child with a snake of this size was a pretty irresponsible decision."
The video was actually shot in 2013 but only went viral in recent weeks. As proof that baby Alyssa wasn't hurt, video showed her at age three.
In video taken by INSIDE EDITION, she and her 10-year-old sister, Krista, are still handling snakes at their dad's house outside Detroit.
INSIDE EDITION asked Alyssa, "It doesn't scare you to have this snake around your neck?" Alyssa shook her head.
"Why not?" we asked her.
Alyssa replied, "because they're not evil creatures."
After the video of baby Alyssa and Nay-Nay went viral, child protective services investigated the situation and, according to Jamie, determined the girls were not in any danger.
Jamie then said, "They looked at all the snakes. Actually two of the police officers were very nice. One of them actually held a few snakes which was real cool!"
His message to anyone looking at the shocking video is this: "My children's safety comes first. I would never let anything happen to them."
