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British family shares home with 80 animals
A British family shares its home with an amazing collection of 80 exotic animals that include boa constrictors, pythons and tarantula spiders.
Alan Hewitt, 44, and his wife Heather, 40, have 20 snakes, 15 reptiles, 25 mammals and birds and invertebrates as their pets at their home in in Morley, near Leeds, The Sun reported Saturday.
The couple run a sanctuary – the Morley Exotic Animal Rescue – for rescued pets and now have a collection comprising 35 different species.
They include two monitor lizards, six bearded dragons, four boa constrictors, two pythons, two giant tortoises, a cane toad, four tarantula spiders, rodents, an African grey parrot, two meerkats, two racoons and a skunk.
The sanctuary costs 20,000 pounds a year to run and the expenses are met through fund-raising. The family has now applied for charitable status.
‘Living with 80 animals is a tremendous experience. Many end up here due to neglect and people not knowing how to look after them… or they’ve outgrown the owner, who becomes frightened,’ Alan said.
‘We get animals from the police, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the public. We have to separate prey and predator. And I’m always on my guard. I’m forever being bitten by tarantulas and snakes or stung by scorpions,’ he said.
Heather added: ‘I do get nervous when Edward’s around the scorpions.’
The couple have three children – Abigail, 17, Grace, 15, and Edward, 10.
Snakes slither into more Bangkok homes
Have you ever called 199 _ the call service operated by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to deal with unwanted visitors?
If you answered yes, you are not alone in seeking help from the experts in dealing with pests such as water monitors, poisonous insects and, especially, snakes.
There have been 2,935 calls to the hotline so far this year to the end of October from residents seeking help to deal with snakes invading homes in the capital.
“The incident is recorded only for those we can catch. If not, we will not record it,” said the director of Bangkok Fire and Rescue Department, Yutasak Romchatthong.
“It means that the number of calls for snake disturbances is a lot higher than that.”
He said the number of recorded rescue operations for snake disturbances had increased “significantly” from 1,582 in 2008 and 2,744 in 2009.
He said this increase was due to the continuing encroachment of humans on the natural habitats of snakes and lizards.
Bang Chan, Phra Khanong and Bang Khae are the areas with the highest numbers of calls for snake invasions. Most of them are non-poisonous species such as pythons and fish-eating snakes.
However, in some cases, cobras have been found in homes, especially on the outskirts of Bangkok where paddy fields and other farming areas are being replaced by housing estates.
After receiving a call, a team of three or four firefighters will head to the scene with simple snake-catching equipment such as a net, a plastic bag and a hook.
All City Hall fire-fighting staff have been trained to catch snakes and other harmful creatures.
Mr Yutasak said the BMA was concerned about the increase in the city’s lizard population.
“We will have to talk with other agencies about how to deal with the lizards. We usually just let them go in nearby forests, although some of them have been sent to the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute,” he said. The institute is a centre for the production of snake anti-venin and rabies vaccinations.
So far this year, the Bangkok Fire and Rescue Department has also addressed cases involving water monitors (315), cats (273), wasps and hornets (146), and stray dogs (106).
Banjong Proybamrung, a volunteer rescuer at the Bang Khen Fire Station Office, said his team gets an average of four callouts a week regarding snakes.
“Most of them are pythons,” he said. “But if we find a cobra, there is no choice but to kill them.”
Currently, 80 pythons are being kept in a cage at Bang Khen Fire Station, and about 100 others were recently released in a forest in Chon Buri province.
Crews tasked with conservation on Windsor-Essex Parkway demolition
Why is an animal species like the Butler’s garter snake and a volunteer organization such as Habitat for Humanity so high on the priority list in a provincial highway demolition project? Because this isn’t the average demolition project.
For the first time in Ontario — and likely Canada — before any building is torn down, demolition crews must be trained in conservation measures such as protecting endangered species.
This includes animals like the Eastern fox snake and plants like the Kentucky coffee tree, willow leaf aster and dense blazing star.
It’s all part of the massive demolition process for the 11-kilometre, 300-hectare footprint for the Windsor-Essex Parkway, the connecting freeway that will link Highway 401 to a new bridge between Windsor and Detroit as part of the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC).
In a permit issued to the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) under Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, such animals and plants cannot be killed, but when spotted by crews must be captured or removed to other habitats where they can thrive.
Accordingly, more than 100 people — everyone from staff of contractors to volunteers for charity organizations — have received endangered-species training. If the species are spotted, staff are trained to call in experienced naturalists to remove the animals or plants.
Habitat for Humanity is also playing a significant role because, for the first time in a major demolition, a non-profit organization is participating in salvaging materials for dozens of community organizations.
“It has to be one of the largest demolitions we’ve ever had,” said Garfield Dales, manager of project delivery for MTO’s Windsor Border Initiatives Implementation Group.
In total, some 350 buildings — the vast majority residential, with perhaps 30 or 40 commercial — have to be knocked down by early next year before major construction on the submerged and partly tunnelled highway can take place.
So far, three local demolition contractors and one from Toronto have been hired for different stages of the project. By mid-October, 112 residential and nine commercial buildings had been taken down.
The Jones Demolition Group, Canadian Group of Companies, Pillette Transfer Station and the Priestly Demolition Inc. have won tenders through MERX.
Some $800,000 worth of work has been tendered, with that figure expected to go beyond $1 million.
The companies must remove the buildings and then backfill to a grade six inches above ground. Besides screening for endangered species, crews are instructed to leave intact trees and other deciduous growth not directly in the path of buildings.
The MTO has touted the parkway as a first in Canada for the amount of tunnelling and overhead green space — including a network of parks and trails — which will be part of a highway project.
Dales said that, for the most part, trees not affected by the road depth changes or construction itself may become part of that green area. “Vegetation removal will be part of a future landscaping plan,” he said.
Meanwhile, special fencing — Geotex hammered on to two-by-four frames — has been dug into the ground to specifically prevent snakes from entering at least one area of utility work.
Altogether 900 properties, most without buildings, have to be acquired. A consortium of construction firms is expected to be chosen before the year is out.
The vast majority of acquisitions — 700 — have been by agreed settlement. But with a tight schedule and a target of acquiring and demolishing all properties by January, expropriation in several cases has begun, Dales said.
He said some buildings will be left up and will be the responsibility of the construction consortium.
The generic consortium acronym Projectco will undertake demolition for sites acquired after construction begins.
Billy Bob Thornton – Thornton Feared Leftover Reptile Eggs In Slash’s Old Home
Actor BILLY BOB THORNTON was forced to call in an exterminator of a different kind when he bought SLASH’s old home in Los Angeles – because he feared the snake-loving rocker had left behind one of his many pet reptiles.
The Bad Santa star purchased the mansion the guitar hero nicknamed ‘The Snake Pit’ a decade ago and confesses he insisted on having the property searched for remaining lizard eggs just in case.
He says, “Slash is into reptiles. I don’t mind snakes, I grew up in Arkansas, we had snakes everywhere. But I don’t like snakes with legs, any kind of dinosaur-looking thing, like a komodo dragon. My little girl, Bella, who’s six, she’s way into lizards and dinosaurs and she thinks Slash is amazing, she’s like, ‘I don’t understand why you don’t like them.’
“We actually had a guy come in and check there were no lizard eggs, like most people have a termite guy come in, we had a guy monitor for lizard eggs!”
Shocked teenagers find dead baby cobra snake near play area
CHILDREN were horrified to find a dead snake near a park where they play.
The snake, believed to be a cobra, was discovered next to garages in Highfield Park in Stroud.
Jon Sharp, 16, of Highfield Road, saw a five-year-old-boy crying and went over to see what the matter was.
The teenager, who was in the park with friends, called on the help of snake expert Martin Burns, who identified it as a baby cobra.
Jon, who studies Animal Care at Hartpury College, said: “The boy was screaming and pointing at a snake on the floor. I phoned the police. I walked to Martin’s house and he came rushing to the park.”
The brown and yellow snake was about 2ft long.
Martin, 42, of Spider Lane, said: “It was quite big for a baby. It was frozen, the weather is too cold for it. But it still had venom in its fangs.
“It had proper African brown colouring and markings like a cobra. I could see by the shape of its head and neck.”
Martin, who owns four boa constrictors, picked up the snake and took it home.
Police later arrived at his house and Martin took the reptile to The Clockhouse Veterinary Hospital, at Wallbridge.
Gloucestershire Police spokeswoman Alexa Collicott said: “It’s believed the snake was a cobra that had possibly been kept locally as a pet.”
A spokesman at The Clockhouse Veterinary Hospital, said the snake had been shedding its skin and looked as if it had a hood similar to a cobra.
RSPCA spokesman Katya Mira, said cobras do not make suitable pets.
She said: “Unfortunately, many people take on exotic animals without realising the level of care involved.
“As a result, the RSPCA is called out to help an increasing number of exotic animals which have escaped from unsuitable accommodation or simply been released when their owners decide they no longer want them.”
A Stroud District Council spokesman said people should not risk handling any snakes in the area. He added: “Should anyone come into contact with a dangerous snake or other animal, we recommend that they do not put themselves at risk and that they contact the police or the council.”
Fish & Game proposes new wildlife ownership rules
If you want a bison in your backyard, that’s fine with New Hampshire Fish & Game – but, please, no alligators in the atrium.
Those are the high points of proposed rule changes by the overseers of state wildlife, part of the ongoing process of tweaking New Hampshire laws and rules about which animals can be owned or brought into the state.
The proposed rules, which will be the topic of a public hearing Dec. 16, are largely “housekeeping items, to bring things into alignment with what has been reality for two years now,” said Lt. Robert Bryant of Fish & Game.
For example, it has been illegal for New Hampshire residents to own alligators and crocodiles since a new law was passed in 2007. The proposed Fish & Game rule would merely add them to the long list of creatures that individuals cannot own or bring into the state.
People who owned one of these reptiles at the time were allowed to keep it with a special permit. Bryant says New Hampshire has 3 or 4 such “grandfathered-in” crocodilians , as the biological order including alligators and crocodiles is known. Under state law, if the reptiles die, they cannot be replaced.
Places with exhibitors licenses, such as wildlife centers, can own and import crocodilians – but can’t sell them, of course.
New Hampshire, like many places, has tightened the rules on owning and important plants and animals in recent years, often fueled by fear that they will escape into the wild and become an invasive species, driving out native flora and fauna.
Fear of invasive species isn’t a concern with crocodilians, which can’t survive our winters.
The concern with them is personal safety of people running into an alligator that has been released into the wild (although there are, so far as we know, no alligators living in the Nashua sewer system).
“People buy these when they’re small: ‘I got this cute little one-foot alligator,’” he said. “But when they get big, people just let them go.”
The situation with bison is roughly the opposite. It has been legal to own them for some time, but Fish & Game hasn’t removed them from its list of controlled wildlife species.
“We feel that bison are livestock at this point in time,” said Bryant. “Even though they exist in the wild out west, here they are raised for food basically – although there’s a few people who have them just as ornamental purposes.”
At the Healthy Buffalo in Chichester, which has sold bison meat to restaurants, stores and individuals since 1993, owner Jim Kersch said he knows of “a handful” of farms in New Hampshire that raise bison for meat, a number that has stayed relatively stable in recent years.
Kersch also occasionally hears of bison that have escaped or been released into the wild.
“I’ve got one customer that has seen two of them, up by Pittsburg,” he said.
It’s not clear whether they are of different genders, which would lead to the possibility of a semi-wild bison population in the North Country. Importing bison, as with any livestock, requires permission from the state Department of Agriculture, which is concerned about keeping out various diseases.
The state has a large number of rules about which animals and plants can be possessed in various circumstances.
For example, Fish & Game says that while bullfrogs can’t be brought into the state, dead ones from outside the state can be sold as food or for educational purposes as in “biosupply companies selling frozen specimens to schools for dissection.”
It is also illegal to put reptiles and amphibians from outside New Hampshire, including tadpoles, in outdoor water gardens or ponds because of concern that they’ll escape into the wild.
On the other hand, fans of the yak can rest easy.
Like llamas, pot bellied pigs and chinchillas – and bison – yaks are an uncontrolled species.