Men warned to take care in Thailand following python toilet attack. Woman are spared.

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Thai man bloodied but unbowed after snake attacks him in toilet

U.S. State Dept. issues travel advisory

The Associated Press reported today that a Thai man is recovering from a bloody encounter with a 3-meter (10-foot) python that slithered through plumbing and latched its jaws onto his (you know what) as he was using the toilet.

The 38-year-old told Thai TV Channel 7 that he struggled to remove the snake for 30 minutes Wednesday before he managed to free himself with help from his wife and a neighbor. 

The U.S. State Department immediately issued a travel advisory warning male U.S. citizens traveling to Thailand to exercise extreme caution when using either Western-style sit-down or Asian-style squat toilets. 

The advisory did not apply to woman traveling to the country.

In response to the State Department advisory, the Thailand Tourist Board urged calm, while issuing a statement saying that the incidence of pythons slithering through plumbing is very rare, occurring perhaps only five to ten times a year, and suggested that for added protection men should only use toilet facilities located above the second floor of a building as pythons never pipe slither above the first floor.

It is not clear whether the first floor limit on python plumbing slithering is due to their well known fear of heights or because of their preference for “low hanging fruit.”