Daily Reptile News

Egyptian police stop man at airport trying to smuggle 8 foxes, 50 chameleons to Thailand

CAIRO — Security at Cairo’s international airport on Wednesday stopped an Egyptian man trying to smuggle eight live foxes and 50 chameleons in a huge suitcase out of the country.

Police stopped the 36-year-old traveller and asked him to open his suspiciously large suitcase, revealing the squirming mass of animals confined in small plastic cages.

Brig. Gen. Mustafa Salah of airport security said they confiscated the animals and will turn them over to the Cairo zoo.

According to Salah, the man said he planned to sell the animals in Thailand, use the money to buy cellphone parts and a computer that he would resell upon returning to Egypt.

Transporting live reptiles out of the country is illegal in Egypt.

Though he was released by police, the man elected to stay in Egypt saying he did not want to be separated from his animals.

Airport officials often confiscate live animals being smuggled out of Cairo, often for destinations in the Gulf.

In 2007, police stopped a man carrying a large numbers of reptiles, including baby crocodiles, chameleons and a cobra, he said were for use at a Saudi university.

In another case that year, a Saudi was discovered with 700 snakes in his carry on luggage. He told authorities they were popular as pets in his country.

Snake permit bill passes

BATON ROUGE — People who want to keep extremely large or venomous snakes soon will have to get a permit.

State Rep. Dorothy Sue Hill, D-Dry Creek, got House concurrence for House Bill 1354, which requires anyone who keeps a snake that’s at least 8 feet long or venomous to get a permit from the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Hill’s bill was the result of concerns of residents who live near High End Herps, a constrictor breeding business near Oakdale. A police raid of the business found 22 boas that exceeded the 12-foot limit for which permits currently are required but no poisonous snakes.

Hill’s bill lowers the maximum length before a permit is needed. It also was amended in the Senate not to apply to turtles.

Zoos, aquariums and other facilities that display large snakes are exempt from the permit requirement.

Alligator Caught On Columbus’ East Side

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Reptile rescue agents had their hands full Wednesday when an alligator was spotted on the city’s East Side.

A bird dog spotted the alligator behind a business on the 400 block of Woodland Avenue at about 9:30 a.m.

Authorities were called to the scene.

Authorities called rescuer Christopher Law with the Ohio Reptile Service.

Law was able to catch the gator and tape its mouth shut.

Law took the gator back to the Ohio Reptile Service.

Authorities said they aren’t sure how the gator became loose or from where it came.

Snake bite follow-up

Last week a 28 year old man needed 13 viles of anti-venom over the span of two and a half days to survive an encounter with a snake in a grocery store parking lot. His story has sparked heightened awareness of how to handle this type of attack.

Luis Pellicia of the LMA warns, “Do not touch the wound, do not cotton the wound, do not try to suck on the wound as it will make the venomation worse.”

Also those helping the victim need to be weary of the snake. “When they bite they like to stay 20-30 feet around their victims so when someone comes to help the person who has been bitten, they have to be extremely careful.”

Identifying the animal is crutial to diagnosing how to treat the bite. The ability to classify the bite may be the step that saves a victiim’s life as there are only two anti-venoms readily available at most hospitals.

Sandra Leyendecker, a veterinarian at Critter Care said, “Oh yes, both cats and dogs have been brought into the center for rattlesnake bites.” A vaccination is offered for $25 to pets who are at high risk, namely those who live in newly constructed subdivisions or the countryside. But just like humans each snake bite case is different. “The likelyhood of it being deadly depends on the location of the bite. Certainly if your dog is bit near the jugular or the heart area, they are at high risk.”

The Lamar Bruni Vergara Environmental Center values research on wildlife native to the state. They too have seen the trend. Tom Miller explains, “In central Texas they are also experiencing above average snake bites in their area. So they are out there.” But Miller says Texans are fortunate to have the greatest variety of snakes in the nation. “We’re lucky. They are very interesting animals. A lot of people absolutely love them. There aren’t many people in between. There are people who really love snakes and people who don’t want to see any kind of snake.”

Mesa Man Who Tried to Feed Cat to Python — Then Killed it Himself When Snake Wouldn’t — Gets Probation

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A Mesa man got a smooch on the wrist from a Maricopa County Superior Court judge on Friday when the judge sentenced him to only three years’ probation after the man pleaded guilty to one count of animal cruelty.

Jeremy Tuffly, 28, entered the guilty plea to animal cruelty in May after he tried to feed a kitten to a python. The python refused to kill the kitten, but that didn’t stop Tuffly from taking nature into his own hands and killing the kitten himself by kicking it across a backyard.

As you can see in the clip, Tuffly’s in a backyard, repeatedly throwing the kitten into a plastic container in which there was a giant python.

The snake doesn’t seem all that interested in the cat until Tuffly throws it directly onto the back of the snake.

The kitten kept running back toward Tuffly as if he were going to rescue it, only to be tossed right back onto the snake.

It’s clear there are two pussies involved in this situation because Tuffly is standing a cautious 15 feet away from the giant snake, not wanting to go near it — and using the top of the container as a pseudo shield — as he lobs the kitten on the snakes back.
As we pointed out in a previous post about Tuffly: Congrats to Mesa for having a resident who’s one of the few people on the planet who can get out-classed by a snake.

Gov’t to crack down on snake soup

A bowl of snake soup is considered the best “stamina” food for summer, according to some urban myths. But eating it could put you behind bars, the Ministry of Environment decided Tuesday.

The ministry is planning a nationwide crackdown on restaurants serving soups made with snake broth by July 15 to regulate the illegal distribution, sales and intake of snake meat, a move to protect wild animals.

The authorities said anyone who is caught eating snake meat here and those who import snakes and process them into an edible form will be fined up to 5 million won or imprisoned for up to one year. Those who poach wildlife animals are subject to up to two years in jail or a 10 million won fine.

“We hear some celebrities and sports stars on TV boast about eating snake meat to boost their energy. But we can assure you that eating snake is illegal and is nothing to speak proudly of,” a ministry official said.

Turtle Directs Camera’s Voyage From Aruba to Keys

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Sea turtles have the ability to do almost anything in the water, but we didn’t known shooting film was one of the reptile’s talents.

A man who lost his camera in Aruba is crediting a sea turtle for switching on his waterproof recorder and helping the camera find its way to the Florida Keys.

Dick de Bruin said he lost his camera about six months ago while he was on a boating trip with his family in Aruba. Thought to be lost forever, de Bruin, didn’t worry about seeing it again.

But the camera washed up in the Keys and was found by Paul Shultz, a U.S. Coast Guard investigator  who took it upon himself to find the owner. While investigating the contents of the camera, Shultz found a 5-minute video that appeared to be shot by someone in the ocean.

That someone was a something – as in a sea turtle. Scientists said the turtle likely tried to eat the foreign object and accidentally switched it on. The leash got snagged on the turtle’s shell and then the video blog began.

The turtle is no James Cameron, but he does a good job with lighting and sound. The video shows the fins and shell of the turtle several times along with a little underwater footage of fish and other sea life.

The camera eventually got free of the turtle, or vice versa, and it was set back on a course to Florida, some 1,100 miles away from where it originally was dropped in the ocean.

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