Animal control officers have removed dozens of sickly
snakes from an apartment in Baltimore, Maryland.
Sharon Miller, Baltimore's director of animal services,
says officers rescued 56 snakes from the apartment on Tuesday. She says the
reptiles were dehydrated and were infested with mites, and three had to be put
down.
Miller says the snakes, which included ball pythons,
reticulated pythons and boa constrictors, were removed after officers found
them in squalid conditions.
The snakes were taken to an animal shelter.
Miller says an investigation is under way and citations or
charges could result. A permit is required to own any kind of snake in
Baltimore.
While some pets may enjoy lounging around all day, others
are ready to take on the world — one task at a time. Meet Pringle, a cute
bearded dragon from Melbourne, Australia.
His owner, Sophie Hayes, got him when
he was a tiny one-month-old lizard, and discovered that Pringle is nothing like
those reptiles who just like eating and sunbathing all the time. Pringle loves
to be in front of the camera! He’s a natural model and you can see him posing
with all kind of props without any problems.
Pringle is now 4 years old and has already got so famous
that he even appeared on The New York Post! However, he remains a humble lizard
who likes simple things like going for a walk, eating salads or playing video
games. Even many presents from his owner can’t spoil this bearded dragon!
Two young kids in are captivated by their unusual new
neighbor, a 10-foot alligator.
The alligator first took up residence in Sonya Gilreath's
bushes Thursday morning.
"It didn't look very big to me," she said, adding
that it seemed like it could have been a baby alligator.
Police responded, Gilreath said, and as the gator laid
still, she and her 2-year-old and 3-year-old sat on the front porch "just
watching it."
"All of a sudden, it stood up, and I realized how
gigantic it was," she said. "I've never seen one this size before.
Not loose."
That's when Gilreath took her excited kids inside and
snapped the adorable photos from her kids' perspective.
"They thought it was really cool," she said.
The gator was 10 feet long, according to ABC affiliate
WCIV, and taken by local police back into the water. The Department of Natural
Resources was notified but did not intervene, WCIV said.
"There's a pond in front of our house and I watched
the alligator escort himself into that pond," Gilreath said. "And the
animal control and policemen left."
She said she called the Department of Natural Resources,
which told her it wouldn't remove the gator from a residential area, instead
calling it the homeowner association's responsibility.
"It's still in the pond and I really want it
gone," Gilreath said, adding that the homeowner association is looking
into the issue. "It is really scary having an animal that size... We
probably have about 10 kids on the street that walk to the school bus."
Even though the gator is still on the loose, Gilreath's
children are still talking about it today, she said, adding that they
definitely seemed more excited than afraid.
"I was trying to keep them from being scared,"
she said. "I don't want to put fear in them where they're afraid to go
outside."
The Goose Creek Police Department wrote on Facebook,
"If you see an alligator in your neighborhood, don't approach or attempt
to handle them on your own. Our animal control officers will respond and
determine the best course of action in these situations."
California animal control discovered an eight-foot alligator surrounded by the bodies of two cats at a suburban Los Angeles home on Monday.
The female crocodile named Jaxson was found in a box with a lid at the home of Laura Mattson, who had been caring for the reptile for years, possibly decades.
'It was found under foliage and debris. You had to be looking for it to locate it,' said Mark Salazar, of field operations director for Los Angeles Animal Services, who said experts estimate Jaxson is 40 years old.
Feral cats are devastating our wildlife, so we need a long-term, sustainable solution. This is where Australia's natural predators come in. A few moments on the internet will reveal that, as companion animals, cats are rivalled only by dogs. Our love affair with them is hardly surprising: they are elegant, graceful and affectionate animals. But they are also highly adaptable and successful hunters. Sadly our soft spot for them brings with it disastrous consequences for smaller wildlife species, particularly mammals, birds and reptiles. To read more on this story, click here: Top Dogs: Australian Predators Can Provide 24-7 Feral Cat Control
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Granite City, Illinois, police say a woman has received a baby python in the mail that someone purchased with her credit card number. Delores Gavin said a FedEx delivery man left the snake at her front door Tuesday. The $100 spotted python was sent from a reptile dealer in California and is a common pet among reptile lovers. Gavin says she screamed when she found the snake, which she didn't order. The reptile dealer has agreed to take the snake back and refund $100 charged to Gavin's credit card.
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Coventry, England - Dwayne Matthews, a 29-year-old man was at a house party when a van pulled up selling snakes. Dwayne bought Bruce, a 10 ft long Python, with the intent to sell him later. Unfortunately for Dwayne, Bruce was stolen property, and pretty mad about it.
Dwayne awoke the next morning to see Bruce the Snake trying to eat his sleeping friend. After saving his friend, Dwayne tried to sell Bruce to a local pet shop and was arrested for possession of stolen goods.
