Mother Sues Snake Zoo/Store After Kid Gets Salmonella

Two years after a then 2-year-old boy was diagnosed with salmonella, the boy's mother has filed a lawsuit against the popular Serpent Safari in Gurnee Mills, claiming that her son picked up the illness after petting one of their snakes. Serpent Safari, which has reptiles on display as well as for sale, allows visitors to pet and hold their albino Burmese python, which is how the lawsuit claims the boy contracted salmonella after store employees "allowed and encouraged" him to pet the snake.

The lawsuit is accusing the store of "negligence" because it doesn't provide hand sanitizer or any written warnings about the risk of infection when handling a snake. Serpent Safari owner Lou Daddono told the Daily Herald that he "questioned why it took two years for the salmonella suit to be filed" and that although there definitely is a risk of contracting salmonella after handling reptiles, he's "confident" his snake was not the source of the boy's disease, and he estimates at least 400,000 people have touched the snake since he opened in the late '90s.

This isn't the first time Serpent Safari has been in the news. In 2006, two Serpent Safari employees were accused of hacking up and dumping a Burmese python in a wooded lot after the snake died. Named Baby, the store claimed that the huge 27-foot-long, 403 pound snake was the heaviest living snake in captivity at the time.