In this image taken from video, Kyle O'Grady, right, of the Indian River Reptile Zoo in Ontario helps move animals from the Reptile Ocean pet store in Campbellton, N.B., on Friday, August 9, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kevin Bissett
August 09, 2013 - 3:57 AM
CAMPBELLTON, N.B. - Zoo staff have begun removing animals from the exotic pet store beneath the apartment where two boys were killed by a python in New Brunswick.
Three zoo staff members carried what appeared to be either an alligator or a crocodile from the shop in Campbellton.
The reptile was about two metres long, wrapped in white fabric and taken into a U-Haul truck.
The animals are being seized days after four-year-old Noah Barthe and his six-year-old brother Connor were killed by an African rock python in an apartment upstairs from Reptile Ocean.
The Natural Resources Department has obtained a warrant to search the store and said if any illegal animals are found, they would be seized and relocated to accredited zoos.
The building has been cordoned off with police tape since the boys were found dead Monday morning.
Preliminary results of autopsies show that the boys were asphyxiated by the python.
Police say the snake escaped a glass tank inside the apartment, slithered through a ventilation system and fell through a ceiling into the living room where the boys slept.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2013