CAMPBELLTON, N.B. -- Zoo staff have seized more than 20 animals from an exotic pet store beneath the apartment where two boys were killed by a python in New Brunswick.
Bruce Dougan, the manager of the Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton, N.B., says another four American alligators inside Reptile Ocean in Campbellton will be euthanized because officials couldn't find accredited zoos that would take them.
Dougan says 23 animals have been removed and they will be taken to zoos in New Brunswick and Ontario.
The animals are being seized days after four-year-old Noah Barthe and his six-year-old brother Connor were killed by a 45-kilogram African rock python in an apartment upstairs from Reptile Ocean.
Preliminary results of autopsies show that the boys were asphyxiated by the snake.
The Natural Resources Department obtained a warrant earlier this week to search the store and said if any illegal animals were 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.
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.
The apartment and store are owned by Jean-Claude Savoie, a family friend of the boys who took them shopping and to a farm before hosting a sleepover Sunday along with his son. Savoie has not returned messages for comment.
