In a shocking incident, a fight between two men turned hair-raising when one of them started striking the other with his pet python on a street in Toronto, Canada last week.
In a video that went viral on social media, the man — Laurenio Avila, 45 — can be seen swinging his pet snake and using it to strike a person in the middle of the street.
According to CBC News, the incident took place on May 10 at 11:50pm in the Dundas Street West and Manning Avenue area.
The video shows the victim trying to protect himself, but Avila continues to thrash him with the snake. Meanwhile, a police mobile reaches there and the police officers break up the fight and make the men lie down on the ground. In the meantime, the snake slithers away.
In a statement, the police said on Saturday they received a call about a man threatening people with a snake and officers were dispatched to the area.
"There was a physical altercation and the man used the python to attack the victim," the police added.
The official said that Avila, 45, was taken into custody and has been charged with assault with a weapon and causing unnecessary pain or suffering to an animal.
He appeared before the court on May 11 via video link and was remanded into police custody.
Since being shared, the video has garnered more than 14 million views, 43,000 likes and more than 5,000 retweets.
A majority of the netizens called the incident a matter of animal abuse and demanded of the authorities to take appropriate action against the man.
Reacting to the video, an internet user 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.''
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