Python missing in Ankara may be shish-kebab

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2006

ANKARA (AFP) — A frantic search has been under way for a python missing from the Ankara Zoo, even as a cabinet minister suggested the snake may already have passed through a kebab merchant's meat grinder.

The python, which is six meters (20 feet) long and weighs about 70 kilograms (154 pounds), has been missing since June 10, but the zoo management alerted the authorities only Monday, triggering a criminal investigation into the incident, newspapers reported.

"I am responsible for the protection of animal rights.... My biggest concern is the possibility that the python might have become shish-kebab," Environment Minister Osman Pepe was quoted as saying by the mass-circulation daily Hurriyet.

"I advise citizens not to eat shish kebab until the python is...