Court rules in favour of man and his snakes

An environmental court has overruled both the County Council and Gävle municipality in central Sweden, finding there is nothing wrong with a man keeping 47 snakes–20 of which are poisonous–in his apartment.
According to the court, nothing demonstrates that people feel mental discomfort from living near a neighbor with snakes, according to the legal news website Pointlex.

Gävle municipality had denied the man the right to house the snakes in his apartment because “it is generally accepted that many people in society are afraid of snakes.”

And the fear is also justified as it is not unlikely that the snakes could escape, the municipality contended.

In his defence, the snake-man said that an insufficiently grounded fear shouldn’t constitute a nuisance.

The environmental court found that the man had a great deal of knowledge about snakes and that he seemed able to handle them appropriately. He was aware of all applicable animal protection regulations, and the snakes’ living quarters were escape proof, assuming the outer door was closed.

An examination of the case also failed to provide support for the claim that Swedes in general feel discomfort from having a neighbor with snakes.

And even if the snakes make some feel a bit queasy, their concerns can’t be judged from a medical perspective to affect health and welfare in such a way that the snakes be considered a public nuisance according to Sweden’s environmental code.

From The Local

Breeders’ Expo Europe

 

The idea for the Breeders’ Expo Europe was born from lots of stimulation from herpers from Germany and around Europe. The fair concept reflects these suggestions in four main issues:• sufficient room for animals and people
• comfortable room climate
• user-oriented organization/reservation
• a real meeting point for herpers in EuropeThe A2 Forum in Rheda-Wiedenbrück provides ideal conditions to put these ideas into action. The modern event centre integrates enough exhibition area plus other facilities and is located directly at the A2 highway in Germany, right in the heart of Europe. The fair concept includes a market place, an attractive program of lectures as well as quiet areas.
You can see our approach in the event’s logo: The BEE shall be a ‘friendly place’ allowing people to meet and exchange with their friends or business partners having a coffee or a good beer.

Facilities and equipment of the A2 Forum allow the chance to adapt to increasing needs step by step – providing room for more stands or the integration of additional program items. We are currently working on a convention for the friends of poison dart frogs, more cooperations are expected to come. Do you have an interesting idea or is your group of herpers looking for an opportunity to meet and exchange at a central European meeting place? Contact us, flexibility is part of the agenda.

By the way: This principle guides us through the organization of the whole event. For example we will separate exhibitors offering live rats or mice into an extra room to optimize the quality of air in all the other areas. A really good ventilation is standard at the A2 Forum anyway. Another plus: You can book your stands for the next expo on the day of the event. There’s no need to hassle because there’s enough room and stands for everybody. This will help especially our foreign exhibitors to reduce effort and costs alike. We strive to make your visit to the BEE as comfortable as possible and help you with every possible challenge. If we fail in some parts during the first expo your positive input will help us to improve the second time. You can leave your suggestions in writing at the information desk on the day of the event or by e-mail. The service personnel reflects exactly this approach: How can we help you to make you love to come back?

Of course an attractive event needs an attractive supply and demand alike. We are working on both aspects with full intensity and are very pleased having received bookings of a number of well known breeders from Germany and foreign countries at this early stage. You will find a list of exhibitors including their stand numbers beginning with February 2008 under Downloads.

Have you always wanted a real meeting place for you hobby? Then don’t look any further but arrange to meet with your friends at the BEE and make use of our offer. Do you have important questions not covered by the FAQ? Please ask. Do you like to link to the BEE from your web site? Under Downloads you will find the copyright-protected logo of the BEE meant to be used for exactly this purpose.

Time Author Topic
11.30 hours Karsten Wöllner Thinking big – a life with retic pythons (German, questions in English possible) http://www.breeders-expo.de/home-E/lectures-E/retics-E.html13.00 hours Jason Wagner (USA) & Christian Langner Abronia – jewels of the cloud forest (English + German) http://www.breeders-expo.de/home-E/lectures-E/abronia-E.html14.30 hours Lars Fehlandt Ranitomeya imitator, the frog with the “mask” (German, questions in English possible) http://www.breeders-expo.de/home-E/lectures-E/ranitomeya-E.html 15.30 hours Peter Nowark Practice workshop: arranging and equipping a terrarium for poison-dart frogs (German, questions in English possible) http://www.breeders-expo.de/home-E/lectures-E/workshop-E.html16.45 hours Thorsten Mahn Oophaga pumilio – differences between habitat and husbandry (German, questions in English possible) http://www.breeders-expo.de/home-E/lectures-E/oophaga-E.html

Hundreds Of Bottles Of Booze With A Ten Inch Rattlesnake In Each Bottle Seized In Palo Pinto

Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents seized 411 bottles of illegal hooch Thursday at Bayou Bob’s Brazos River Rattlesnake Ranch in Palo Pinto County.

But it wasn’t your typical variety of moonshine: the bottles of vodka also contained 10-inch rattlesnakes.

“In my 20 years with the TABC, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Sgt. Charlie Cloud said Friday.

Bob Popplewell, the owner of Bayou Bob’s, did not return messages left on his voicemail at his snake farm near Santo in Palo Pinto County.

TABC officials said they plan to file charges next week for the sale of alcohol without a permit and possession of alcohol with the intent to sell. Penalties for those charges include up to a year in the county jail and fines up to $1,000 upon conviction.

Popplewell received widespread attention last year when Texas wildlife officials decided to tighten regulations for the collection of turtles. He is believed to be largest buyer of turtles in the state.

He testified before Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioners that he shipped 12,000 turtles out of state in 2006 and another 30,000 in 2005. Popplewell said that most of the turtles are shipped to Asia where they are considered a delicacy.

There was no evidence that Popplewell was shipping the snake-infused alcohol from his business but Cloud said the investigation is ongoing.

“I found it hard to believe he has 411 bottles going out of his store at any given time,” Cloud said.

TABC officials said alcohol containing snakes or scorpions is popular in Asian cultures. An Internet search found operations selling Thai scorpion vodka, cobra whiskey, giant centipede whiskey, herbal gecko lizard wine and Mekong River eel wine.

“It’s very bizarre,” Cloud said. “We learned that these are believed to contain aphrodisiac properties. We heard that some people believe having a venomous animal creates hallucinations.”

TABC agents received a tip several weeks ago and sent an undercover agent to the rattlesnake ranch to purchase the vodka. It wasn’t on display.

“We had to go in and ask for it,” Cloud said.

From Star-Telegram

Woman survives deadly snake attack.

A CECIL Plains woman, 32, has amazed doctors by surviving seven strikes from one of Australia’s deadliest snakes, the Eastern Brown.

Meegan Harrison-Philbey is recovering in Toowoomba Hospital after a month of fighting for her life in the Intensive Care Unit at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.

Her mother Glennis Philbey said she had spent weeks holding her breath as doctors predicted that her daughter’s chances of survival were minimal.

“Meegan was collecting eggs from our chook pen when she stood on the snake,” she said.

“It struck her foot seven times, leaving a large amount of venom inside her.

Meegan ran to the house, her foot bleeding.”

Ms Harrison-Philbey said despite the number of bites she received, the pain wasn’t her biggest fear.

“I felt a sharp pain at first, but it wasn’t excruciating until later on at the hospital.

“There was a timber cutter who was staying with us at the home8stead who knew what to do and bandaged up my foot.”

Dalby Hospital’s Dr Denzil Daniels said his team of doctors fought hard to keep Meegan alive.

“When Meegan arrived at the hospital, she collapsed and started having convulsions,” Dr Daniels said.

“She was bleeding from everywhere and at one point we didn’t think she was going to make it.”

Ms Harrison-Philbey was stabilised but slipped into a coma when transported to Brisbane.

Mrs Philbey said her daughter was not expected to live and spent seven days unconscious.

“She relied 100% on oxygen and was on life support.

“The doctors said it was a wet strike as the venom went straight into her veins.

“People don’t realise the amount of damage a snake can cause to a person.

“Your body breaks down and destroys itself from the inside out,” she said.

From Toowoomba Chronicle

Golf ball-eating snake released into wild

The snake in this article has been released..

A SNAKE that had four golf balls removed from its gut in a world-first operation will be released back into “the rough” today.

Greg and Margaret Church discovered the 80cm-long carpet python on their northern New South Wales property in December.

The couple had put golf balls in their hen house to coax a broody hen to lay, and blamed their grandchildren when the balls went missing.

But then they found the very lumpy snake nearby, they put two and two together.

The snake, nicknamed Augusta, had surgery at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast.

After eight weeks’ recuperation, it will be returned to the wild via the Church family’s Nobbys Creek property.

Mrs Church said she had a previous encounter with Augusta, when it ate a bat and became so fat that she had to help it slide out of a chicken wire fence.

A nature lover, Mrs Church said she would be pleased to have the snake around again.

“I’m glad we found him when we did,” she told AAP.

“My husband, who doesn’t mind handling snakes, picked him up, and he could feel the golf balls inside.

“It was a funny thing at the time.”

Reptile carer Sue Johnston, who housed Augusta after the operation, said it was a happy ending.

“It’s really good to see him go back to his own home again and hopefully he will be eating meals other than things like golf balls,” she said.

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary raised $1401 for a new animal hospital through an online auction of the golf balls.

From news.com.au

World’s longest captive snake on display in U.S.

Fluffy, a gigantic python thought to be the world’s longest captive snake, will be on permanent display at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. (File Photo)     BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhuanet) — Fluffy, a gigantic python thought to be the world’s longest captive snake, will be on permanent display at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, U.S., media reported Monday.     The 7.3-meter reticulated python is about as long as a moving van and thick as a telephone pole.     The zoo bought Fluffy for 35,000 U.S. dollars from its breeder in Oklahoma, which raised the python from a hatchling.     While on loan last year, the snake wowed zoo visitors and helped make last year’s 1.53 million attendance the second highest on record, said Pete Fingerhut, the zoo’s associate director. The biggest year was 2006, with 1.56 million visitors.     Fluffy is on display in a some 8-meter enclosure with a pool and a few plants, where he eats two huge rabbits a week. In the wild, pythons native to Asia eat whatever they can catch, starting with mice and lizards when they’re small and graduating to pigs and goats. There are a few reports of human victims.     The largest known reticulated python was 10 meters when killed in 1912 in Indonesia.

From China view

A follow up on the Golfball-eating snake..

Previous article here.

FOUR golf balls surgically removed from a python which swallowed them thinking they were hen eggs have been sold for $1401.

More than 500 eBay bidders from around the world were watching the auction which raised money for the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary’s new community wildlife hospital on the Gold Coast.

From news.com.au

The golf balls were removed from the snake last month in world first surgery after Augusta, a carpet python, slithered into a hen house for a quick snack of hens eggs and swallowed the golf balls instead.

The owner of a brood hen had put the golf balls in the hen house in a bid to encourage it to start laying.

Vets had hoped Augusta would pass the golf balls naturally but surgery was need to save the snake’s life.

The winning bidder, an Australian, takes home the four unwashed golf balls removed from the snake’s stomach and veterinary photographs and X-rays before and after the world-first surgery.

Snake eats four golf balls

 (Left) The snake with its swollen body and (right) an X-ray of the golf balls in its body.

Now that’s a rough lie.

A carpet python has been operated on by Gold Coast vets to remove four golf balls from its intestine.

“People have been putting golf balls under their brooding hens pretending that they are eggs to make the chickens happy,” senior veterinarian at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Dr Michael Pyne said.

“The snake has got in thinking that he has got a free meal and swallowed up these four golf balls.”

The snake was found by residents at a house at Nobby’s Creek near Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales.

“They knew pretty quickly what was going on so they called us and we sent some wildlife officers around to pick him up,” Dr Pyne said.

“We did the surgery a couple of weeks ago and he’s doing quite well.

“During the surgery we could see the name of the golf balls through the intestine because they were so stretched from these large golf balls being in there.”

The snake - nicknamed Augustus - is currently being rehabilitated by a wildlife carer and is expected to make a full recovery.

It should be released back into the wild in a couple of weeks.

The diagnosis was made easier by the fact Currumbin Sanctuary wildlife officers had seen the same problem once before.

“That one was harder to work out because the snake just came in with these two hard lumps inside it and we didn’t know what was going on,” Dr Pyne said.
From The Sidney Morning Herald

Cat survives snake necklace

THIS would have to be one of the luckiest cats alive.

Nine-year-old Jelly spent some time yesterday walking around with a copperhead snake wrapped around her neck.

Owner Wendy Wallis said Jelly wandered back in to their property, which borders Sorell Creek north of Hobart, about 11.30am yesterday carrying the snake with her, the Mercury in Hobart reports.

She called wildlife rescuers who removed the snake.

“Both the cat and the snake seemed quite happy,” Ms Wallis said.

“She didn’t show any signs of a bite last night, but this morning she was almost paralysed.

“She’s at the Montrose vet at the moment being pumped full of anti-venom, but the vet says she’ll recover fully.”

Ms Wallis said she hadn’t noticed any snakes on the property, but the previous owners and neighbours had seen them regularly.

She added it was a timely reminder about snakes being about at this time of year.

Jelly may well be thinking “One life down, eight to go!”

From HeraldSun

2 Headed snake hatched.

I came across a posting in a reptileforum that I had to write about…

In a clutch of 3 Honduran Milksnake eggs 1 juvenile came out as a normalcoloured, 1 as a Tangerine and 1 with 2 heads. Now this is not so common. As a matter of fact, it rareley happens.

Anyways, I asked if I could post about it, and it was ok from the man that has bred the animals. So, here are a couple of links. The first is to the thread in the reptileforums uk (RFUK) and the other is to a videoshot, showing the 2-headed snake.