Arlington, VA - Owners of snakes, panthers and crocodiles: If you already claim a wild and exotic species as a companion animal in this famously liberal suburb, you get to keep them. If you’ve dawdled over choosing between a skunk or a bobcat, however, you’re out of luck. The Arlington County Board Tuesday night banned the ownership of a whole variety of species — primates, raccoons, wolves or wolf hybrids, coyotes, squirrels, foxes, leopards, tigers, lions (even in Lyon Park), bears, wildcats, ratites (a diverse group of large, flightless birds), venomous snakes, and certain scorpions, centipedes and spiders. Hedgehogs are permitted, as are nonvenomous snakes. “What began as a seemingly straightforward effort to ban exotic pets in Arlington became much more complex and nuanced as the process evolved,” Arlington County Board Chair Jay Fisette said in a statement. “Ultimately, through a lot of conversation with the community, we were able to adopt a Code amendment that reaches a practical balance of the input received from all sides and is enforceable.” The county in February first proposed the ban, but it was delayed due to an outcry from pet owners and the state, which pointed out many of the creatures Arlington sought to ban or register were already prohibited. The change allows Arlington officials to enforce the ban, and require registration of existing exotic pets through the Arlington Animal Welfare League.
FOLLOW US!
Phoenix, Arizona - A man was hospitalized after surviving a rattlesnake bite to the face while trying to show off to friends at a party by attempting to cook the reptile on a barbecue grill. Victor Pratt, 48, was bitten Sept. 7. He was first treated at a hospital near his Coolidge, Ariz., home and then transferred to Banner-University Medical Center in Phoenix. Coolidge is nearly 60 miles southeast of Phoenix. While celebrating his child's birthday with friends, Pratt said he decided to show them how to catch and cook a rattlesnake after one of the reptiles showed up in his yard during the party. Pratt, who was interviewed Friday, grabbed the venomous snake and was showing it off to friends and family, posing for several photos. But he lost his grip on the snake's head, and it attacked him. After being bit twice, once on the chest and once on the face, Pratt said he knew immediately that something was wrong, having been bitten once before when he was 19. "I said, 'We gotta go now,' because I knew what was going to happen," Pratt said. He was taken immediately to a local hospital, which doctors said saved his life. He also has received doses of antivenom. "If an airway is not established in the first few minutes, in our experience less than 15 to 30 minutes, then those patients really don't have a chance to survive,'' said Dr. Steven Curry, Banner hospital's toxicology director. Curry said getting a tube inserted into the patient's airway is vital, especially in face bites. "If they can get their airway established, they're very lucky," Curry said. "That is, you're lucky to have been bitten and been able to make it to the hospital in just a few minutes in order to have those emergency procedures done that are needed to save your life." Pratt was sedated as the procedure was being done, and remained that way for five days, including when he was transferred to the Phoenix hospital. "I lost five days of memory," Pratt said. "I didn't know where I was for five days." This kind of memory loss is common, Curry said, because the drugs needed to keep a patient under prevent memories from forming. For their own safety, patients with face bites are kept heavily sedated, and have their hands wrapped in large, bulky bandages to prevent them from pulling out the endotracheal tube. "(If) that endotracheal tube would come out, because of severe neck swelling, it would be difficult or impossible to immediately put it back in or immediately perform ... an emergency tracheotomy," Curry said. "Because if that tube were to come out, then we would expect that they would be in very big trouble immediately, and perhaps might even die in four to five minutes." Curry said rattlesnake bites are divided into two categories: bites where the victim didn't know there was a snake or tried to get away, or those where the person recognized there was a snake present but did not immediately try to get away. Most bites, he said, are the latter kind. Rattlesnake venom is toxic and can cause swelling, paralysis and numbness at the site of the bite, damaging the tissue. It can cause a person's airwaves to swell to the point of blocking air, and cause internal bleeding. Curry said seeking medical care quickly is critical, noting that home treatments are a mistake. "First-aid measures such as tourniquets, ice, incisions or taking the time to apply suctions ... are dangerous and harmful," he said. "Or completely ineffective, as in the case of suction."
The common denominator across all snake-bite deaths in Arizona, he said, was the victim not receiving medical attention immediately. Often, this is because the victim is out hiking, or in an area far from civilization, Curry said. But in other cases, it's because they thought they could treat themselves. Banner Hospital treats, on average, 70 snake-bite victims a year, Curry said. While face bites such as Pratt's make up less than 1% of them, they are often the most serious. Pratt, however, said he was done dealing with the venomous reptiles. "Ain't gonna play with snakes no more," he said.
Video captured a massive king cobra appearing to drink out of a man’s water bottle amid extreme droughts across southern India. The extremely venomous reptile ― described by Caters News as 12-feet long ― is seen turning to the higher ups, who cautiously pour the water while holding its tail and a hook near its head, presumably in case it turns on them. The people in the video are wildlife rescue workers, according to Caters. The video was reportedly shot from a village in Kaiga township. A similar video uploaded to YouTube in 2014 shows a man sharing a drink with another cobra but in an unknown location. (Talk about friends in low places.) According to Smithsonian’s National Zoo, king cobras can grow up to 18 feet in length. Though they’re considered to be aggressive snakes, they’re said to attack people only when cornered or trying to protect their eggs. “Throughout its entire range from India to Indonesia, the king cobra causes fewer than five human deaths a year, about one-fifth as many as caused by rattlers in North America,” the zoo’s website states.
A woman who neighbors say lived alone and kept mostly to herself shared her home with many animals, and a lot of them were found dead. Katie McGinness, a mother of two, has walked her dog past the home at 132 Timberline Drive many times. She’s shocked to learn the lady living there had approximately 100 dead snakes in a bedroom. “I was just amazed,” said McGinness. “It was just chaotic. I mean we had cops, we had the fire department,” said Rob Long, who lives next door to 132 Timberline Drive. On February 16, police were called out to do a welfare check and found deplorable conditions. They says the entire floor of the house was covered with animal feces, and in a bedroom there were numerous plastic bins containing dead pythons. “I mean why would anyone have 100 snakes?” asked Long. The dead snakes were ball pythons, which are not poisonous and grow to 3-4 feet long. “I was stunned, saddened because I watched them take some of the animals out,” McGinness said. “I feel sorry for her, ‘cause I guess, I don’t know if she doesn’t have anyone to ask for help or she just got over her head with what she was doing,” Long said. A local wildlife expert says for one person, feeding and taking care of 100 snakes at home would be practically a full time job. “It’s just a sad situation. I’m going to assume that she was an animal lover, as we all are around here. However it just kind of got away from her,” said Amy Kight, animal care director at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter. Neighbors say they shudder to think what might’ve happened if the snakes got loose in the neighborhood. “That’s crazy. But it’s scary too, because if one of them escapes it’s scary,” said Sophia Simpson, 10, a neighbor. Besides 100 dead snakes, authorities also removed some live animals, including two dogs, a couple of tortoises and parakeets and two snakes and an African gray parrot. A Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control official said Thursday night as far as he knows, all of the animals have been adopted out. The woman who had the dead snakes in her home, Jennifer Morrison, 59, was cited for confining animals without sufficient food and water.
Nausea struck Corrie Butler as soon as she stepped inside the white clapboard home in Weston, Conn. The stench — a stomach-churning fusion of feces and putrefying flesh, baked in months of summer heat — was unlike anything the experienced animal rescuer had ever encountered. It overwhelmed her, even though she was in a hazmat suit, with her face hidden behind a respirator mask. If the smell was revolting, the horrifying scene inside the dilapidated house was even worse: Hundreds of snakes and exotic birds — some of them dead — were packed inside the cluttered, darkened rooms, according to Butler, a facility manager at Rhode Island Parrot Rescue. Some of the animals were trapped in stacks of bug-infested cages and aquariums; others were hidden beneath rotting piles of trash, cobwebs and debris. In some areas of the house, the floor was carpeted with several inches of urine-soaked refuse, birdseed and desiccated animal remains. Wherever rescuers turned, it seemed, more suffering awaited. In one room, a toucan beak was found among the debris. In another, a pillowcase full of snakes was discovered in a drawer, where rescuers estimated it had been for months. Somehow, those snakes — and close to 50 other serpents — were still alive, though barely. But the 1,500-square-foot house contained more than 100 dead reptiles, many of them stuffed in bags and left to die. The brightly colored birds — lories, rare macaws, a laughing kookaburra, cockatoos, parrots and parakeets — had fared no better. Inside cages caked in filth, emaciated creatures had turned to self-mutilation and begun plucking their vibrant plumage. Rescuers found others sitting in piles of excrement more than a foot high, often beside the decomposing carcasses of their cage mates. Deprived of water, unable to bathe and covered in so much urine their feathers had begun to fall out, some birds looked “melted,” one rescuer said. Instead of chirping or imitating human voices, the birds were eerily silent. “It was terrible, like something from a horror movie,” Butler said. What made it even more disturbing was the identity of the home’s owner: Daniel Kopulos, a wildlife conservationist who owned an exotic pet shop in Manhattan. Kopulos does not have a history of harming animals, investigators say. In fact, he was widely admired as a force for good — a dedicated advocate for endangered birds and other threatened species. But rescuers said it was the worst case of animal hoarding they’ve ever known — a case so unsettling that many are struggling to move past what they saw. Butler, for one, said she has had trouble sleeping since the rescue operation at what the local newspaper dubbed the “Weston House of Horrors.” Kopulos was formally charged with animal cruelty Tuesday after surrendering to the authorities, according to the Weston Forum. Weston Police Sgt. Patrick Daubert described Kopulos as “very cooperative.” Kopulos is scheduled to appear in Norwalk Superior Court on Oct. 24. If convicted, he faces a $1,000 fine and up to a year in prison, the Forum reported. Kopulos could did not immediately respond to a request for comment after he was charged. He declined repeated attempts to be interviewed by The Washington Post in the weeks prior to his surrender, but said in brief emails that the case “has destroyed my life, my reputation, and is spilling over to my employees and others that are close to me.” People close to him are being harassed by “animal welfare people,” he wrote, adding that he worried about the “devastating effects” a story about him might have on his conservation work. “There is obviously another side to the story,” he wrote last month, without elaborating. “Behind the reported story is a real person whose life is being destroyed,” he added. [In Indiana hoarder couple’s home, police find a ‘neglected child’ — and 111 cats] Police were called to the home on Sept. 15 for an “odor investigation.” Responding officers were so overwhelmed by the noxious air that they had to retreat before calling the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. “You could compare the smell to a dead body,” Daubert, the police sergeant, told The Post. “To enter the home, you had to have a respirator.” Firefighters, health officials, hazardous materials workers, veterinarians and authorities from the state Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security were eventually called to assist. Over the course of 12 grueling hours, Butler and other rescuers removed about 220 non-venomous reptiles and birds worth more than $100,000 from the two-bedroom home and a barnlike building on the 3.3-acre property. There were so many animals, rescuers said, that they had to be transported to facilities in a 34-foot horse trailer. Police said the 41-year-old Kopulos — who purchased the property in 2009 — was living at the residence, without running water, when the grisly discovery was made. The day authorities arrived, Kopulos told them he planned to spend the night in the house; but he was not allowed inside, and the property is now condemned, authorities say. Kopulos was perhaps best known as the owner of Fauna, an exotic pet store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Through the store, he became known as a force for good; in 2011, the New York Times noted that “Fauna’s mission is education and conservation. Impulse buyers beware: Mr. Kopulos will sell you a bird only if he approves of you. A mandatory veterinary check-up is built into the price. Not that the birds are ailing: it’s further education for owners.” The paper referred to Kopulos as “the soft-spoken bird whisperer,” and he even appeared on NBC’s “Today” show. “We are very picky about who gets animals from here,” he told the Epoch Times in 2013. “We spend a lot of time speaking to them, we try to meet the entire family.” “I find it more effective to talk to the child then the parents,” he added. “It’s a long-term commitment. We don’t have anything here that lives less than 10-12 years.” The New York Times reported that Fauna had 700 animals in the store at any given time, and there were another 400 “in various stages of being bred, hatched or hand-raised” at Kopulos’s home and aviary in Weston. Among that population, the paper reported, were endangered species that Kopulos bred for conservation and not commercial purposes. Presumably, rescuers said, these were some of the same animals that were found dead and dying at his home earlier this month. Fauna’s Manhattan location has closed. The store was thought to be moving to Yonkers, but calls to the number listed on the Fauna website were not answered, and voice-mail messages were not returned. The store’s social media accounts have also disappeared. The cruelty allegations against Kopulos have shocked the conservation community and those who have worked with him. Photographer Kathryn Elsesser traveled to Guatemala with Kopulos for several weeks in 2012 to document his efforts to teach local veterinarians about macaw husbandry and chick rearing. His goal, she said, was to start a nonprofit organization to aid scarlet macaw conservation. Kopulos seemed to care deeply about the birds, Elsesser said. Even minor details — the type of plastic used in the animals’ feeders, the best way to mix their food — merited grave concern, she recalled. “He was very gentle, and he was an amazing teacher,” she said. “He was so knowledgeable. He gave off the impression of being someone who was a trained veterinarian. You could tell this was a passion of his.” He never displayed any behavior, she said, that could have hinted at a penchant for hurting animals. “Not at all,” she said. “That was not the Daniel that I knew.” The reasons people begin hoarding wildlife vary, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Researchers have linked the practice to obsessive compulsive disorder in the past, but newer theories suggest depression, paranoia and “attachment disorders in conjunction with personality disorders” can play a role. “Some animal hoarders began collecting after a traumatic event or loss, while others see themselves as ‘rescuers’ who save animals from lives on the street,” the ASPCA reports. Hoarders come from many backgrounds, in many ages, according to the ASPCA, but they often share one thing in common: “A failure to grasp the severity of their situation.” They also fail to recognize the suffering animals are experiencing in their care, the ASPCA says: “Research shows many hoarders are beginning to set themselves up as ‘rescue shelters,’ complete with non-profit status. They may appear to be sensible people, persuasively conveying their love for animals and readiness to take those who are sick and with special needs.” [Animal hoarding isn’t just gross, it’s a recognized psychiatric disorder] Valerie Ashley, the director of Rhode Island Parrot Rescue, said it’s hard to understand how a wildlife lover could relegate “some of the most beautiful birds on the planet” to filthy chicken-wire cages and bug-infested breeder boxes. Given the animals’ intelligence and their need for stimulation, Ashley compared the treatment to putting a special-needs child in solitary confinement — for months. “How can a human being live in a house with animals dying around them?” she asked. “Maybe he’s a monster or maybe he was dealing with depression. … But I know people who even at their worst can still say, ‘Please take care of my animal or my child because I can’t do it.’ “Instead, he just walked away and let them starve,” she said. Five of the birds, out of a total of 118 rescued by Rhode Island Parrot Rescue, have since died — and it will take months to nurse the others back to mental and physical health, Ashley said. Even more animals were removed from the property by other New England rescue groups. In the media, Kopulos portrayed himself as an environmentally conscious business owner with a lifelong love of wildlife. He told the Epoch Times that he was raised on a farm in Nashville, where he began caring for injured raccoons and squirrels at any early age. He said he got his first bird when he was 11 and began breeding them a year later. “Every since I was little, I always knew I was innately drawn to animals,” he told the newspaper. “Birds are so intelligent and emotionally driven. They’re very connected, when a bird chooses you that’s a very special thing.” Kopulos told the New York Times that when he was 12, he rescued a macaw named Patches from a Tennessee pet store. More than three decades later, the same bird could be found at Fauna, riding on the shoulders of employees “like a feathered hood ornament.” Rescuers said they do not know what happened to Patches or whether he’s among the massive flock of rescued animals whose names they don’t know. Ashley said the belief that Kopulos’s home was a rescue shelter led many people to hand their pets over to him when they could no longer care for their animals. Now, she said, those same people are calling her to find out whether their former pets are dead. On his Facebook page, Kopulos has railed against animal mistreatment in recent months. In July, he posted an article about teenagers suspected of beating porcupines to death in New York. “Since when is animal cruelty not animal cruelty?” he wrote. “‘Nuisance’ species or not, it’s animal cruelty!” “People are a nuisance,” he added, “but you don’t see me running around beating people to death.”
Rescuers said these lories had nails so long, the birds were unable to walk. (Rhode Island Parrot Rescue)
Daniel Kopulos’s home in Weston.
Daniel Kopulos feeds two Persian Turacos at his exotic pet store.
Setbo Village, Cambodia - Being responsible parents, rice farmer Khuorn Sam Ol and his wife might not be expected to be keen on having their child play with a 16-foot-long, 220-pound snake. Yet they are unflustered that their 7-year-old son, Uorn Sambath, regularly sleeps in the massive coil of the female python, rides the reptile, kisses it and even pats it down with baby powder. "There is a special bond between them," Khuorn Sam Ol said. "My son played with the snake when he was still learning to crawl. They used to sleep together in a cradle." The boy and his snake have become a tourist attraction in Setbo village, about 12 miles south of the capital Phnom Penh, as well as a source of wonder to the locals. "People sometimes call the boy and the snake husband and wife," said Cheng Raem, a 48-year-old neighbor. "Maybe they were a couple from a previous life." Boy and snake grew up together, ever since the python slithered into the family home when Uorn Sambath was 3 months old. His 39-year-old mother, Kim Kannara, discovered the reptile, then about the size of a thumb, coiled beneath a woven mat on their bed. Khuorn Sam Ol took the snake away, releasing it into some bushes by a river, but one morning two weeks later, he found it back inside the house. He decided to keep it and named it Chamroeun — meaning "progress," in English. He came to believe the snake possesses a magical spirit that understands what he says and protects the family from illness. The snake has its own 7-by-10-foot room with a spirit house at which Khuorn Sam Ol prays for the python to keep his family happy and healthy. The snake is so familiar with his son — one of four children — that it would never hurt him, he said. According to Nikolai Doroshenko, a Russian snake expert living in Cambodia, it's true that pythons rarely attack humans unless provoked. But there is still an element of danger in allowing any young child to play with a large python with a grip powerful enough to break bones, said Doroshenko, who runs the Snake House guesthouse in the southwestern city of Sihanoukville, with its own collection of snakes and other reptiles. Chamroeun — whom it takes three adults to carry — eats about 22 pounds of chicken meat every week, posing a heavy financial burden on the family, said Khuorn Sam Ol. His meals used to be a spiritual burden as well, when they fed him live rats and chickens. Uneasy that they were breaking the Buddhist injunction against killing living things, Khuorn Sam Ol said the snake eventually answered his prayers for it to stop eating live animals. Wildlife and police officials used to come by to try to take the snake away and put it in a zoo. But they relented after seeing Uorn Sambath lovingly cuddling the reptile. They left with some pictures they took of the boy and the snake together, Khuorn Sam Ol said. "I will not let anyone take her away from me, either. I love her very much," declared his son, Uorn Sambath, kissing his pet on the head.
Did you know that animal shelters have other animals available for adoption besides dogs and cats? They have small furry animals including gerbils, guinea pigs, rabbits, snakes, birds…and yes, fish. If you are looking to adopt a pet, but can not have a dog or cat, check out the other small animals available at your local animal shelters. This Saturday, July 23rd, marks the 2nd Annual ‘Clear the Shelters’ event, and would be a good time to adopt since all fees are waived. The Washington Humane Society/Washington Animal Rescue League have several small animals/reptiles available for adoption. Please take a look at them below. Please take time to read their: Steps to Adopt
Available at the Washington Animal Rescue League (WARL) 71 Oglethorpe St NW Washington, DC (202) 726-2556 Hours: 12:00PM - 7:00PM
Biff - Rabbit To learn more about Biff, click HERE
Pluto - Rabbit To learn more about Pluto, click HERE.
Charizard - Lizard To learn more about Charizard, click HERE.
Jay Z - Small and furry To learn more about JayZ, click HERE.
Butch - Small and furry To learn more about Butch, click HERE.
Available at the Washington Humane Society (WHS) 1201 New York Ave NE Washington, DC 202-576-6664 or 202-726-2556 12:00PM - 7:00PM
Chiliarch - Rabbit To learn more about Chiliarch, click HERE.
Neon NopeRope - Reptile To learn more about Neon NopeRope, click HERE.
Romeo – Reptile To learn more about Romeo, click HERE.
Juliet – Reptile To learn more about Juliet, click HERE.
Julius – Reptile To learn more about Julius, click HERE.
Rascal – Small and furry To learn more about Rascal, click HERE.
