GALLATIN ST. NW, 600 block, March 18. A Washington Humane Society officer removed a boa constrictor from an abandoned apartment. The owner had moved out early in the month, and a company hired to clean the apartment had found the snake but accidentally turned off its heat lamp, which can be lethal to coldblooded animals. No food was left for the reptile, although snakes are usually fed once a month. The animal was without heat for about a day. It was taken to the society’s shelter and adopted. The case was under investigation.
Herpetology Weekend Set For Pennyrile Forest
PADUCAH, KY – Enjoy a weekend of learning about reptiles and amphibians of the Pennyrile Forest Region during Herpetology Weekend. The event will take place at Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park near Dawson Springs on April 9th through the 11th.
Murray State University Herpetology Professor Ed Zimmerer will give a presentation about local species on Friday night and take the group out on Pennyrile State Forest on Saturday for herping field trips. On Saturday night, Scott Shupe of the Kentucky Reptile Zoo, will present a program on the “World of Reptiles,” which will showcase reptiles that are found outside of the United States.
Registration fees are as follows: $10 single rate, $20 family rate, $40 group rate (groups of 10 or more). For more information, contact Rebecca Clark at
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or call 1-800-325-1711.
Pre-registration is preferred and a registration table will be set up beginning at 4 p.m. on Friday. Programs will start at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The group may be split into morning and afternoon groups for the field trips.
This is a great activity for families that like to get out and explore in nature, as well as scouting and 4-H groups.
Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park has a lodge, cottages, restaurant and hiking trails. The resort is 20 miles northwest of Hopkinsville on KY 109 N. From the Western Kentucky Parkway, exit at Dawson Springs and take KY 109 south.
Large python leaves hiding place behind
DIEHLSTADT (AP) — Conservation agents deal with snakes all the time, but not the kind seen recently under a southeast Missouri home.
An exterminator at a home in Diehlstadt went beneath it on Monday to spray and found what he described as a large python.
Missouri Department of Conservation agents arrived, but the python was gone and hasn’t been seen since. Agent Ben Stratton told the homeowners to put ammonia or moth balls under the house to keept the python away.
Arizona dog survives rattler bite; alerted owner to danger
Kay Harrison figured there was some kind of trouble when her dog, Sammy, started barking and wouldn’t stop outside her place in Tonopah.
Harrison said she stepped out to see what was going on, and the dog jumped in front of her, blocking her from taking another step. Harrison said she heard a rattle and leaned to see a rattlesnake in a flower bed by the door.
“She saved my life,” Harrison said of her 8-year-old Catahoula. “She got between me and the snake.”
Warmer weather means venomous snakes and other poisonous creatures are getting more active after winter hibernation.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department says people need to be more vigilant.
“You just need to watch where you put your hands and feet,” said Thomas R. Jones, the agency’s amphibians and reptiles program manager.
The snake bit Sammy on the head. Harrison thinks it happened when she turned to yell for help. The dog immediately got lethargic and suffered acute pain. Harrison could hardly get her into a Jeep for the trip to the veterinarian.
Swelling eventually closed one of her eyes, but Sammy made it. The dog goes home today after about five days in a Buckeye veterinary clinic.
Wally Wass, a veterinarian who works part-time in the clinic, said the dog probably would not have survived without the snake-bite vaccine he got last summer.
Pet snake on the loose
LAURIUM — A pet snake is on the loose in Laurium. A resident who lives on Osceola Street told police his pet boa constrictor is missing.
The owner left a window open Thursday night and was unable to find the snake Friday morning.
The pet boa is eight feet long.
Anyone who sees the snake is asked to contact the Laurium Police Department at 337-4000.
Rattlesnake Roundup set for this weekend in Thackerville
THACKERVILLE, OK – This year marks the Thackerville Volunteer Fire Department’s
third year to hold the Rattlesnake Roundup, and while there will be crafts and games, the department says it hopes the rattlesnake show featuring dozens of snakes will help them raise the money they desperately need.
The thought of being in the same room with a rattlesnake might frighten some, but for handler Michael Sheridan its all in a day’s work.
“One minute you can get away with a stunt, the next minute they’re coming at you with full fangs and just ready to chase you down and you take a chance. Most snakes, they don’t want to be handled,” Sheridan says.
Sheridan and other handlers from Texas Diamond Hunters and the Fangs and Rattlers professional snake handlers are showing off their skills this weekend in Thackerville as part of the fire department’s fundraiser.
“This is just one of our deals to try and raise money because everyone has a chili cook off, a fish fry, stuff like that, so this is just something a little different,” Thackerville Fire Chief Teddy Richey says.
Richey says the money from this year’s fundraiser will help pay for the replacement of the department’s only rescue truck that was heavily damaged in ice storms earlier this year. Richey says the truck is instrumental when responding to numerous accidents on Interstate 35.
“We’ve had a lot of accidents on 35, and extrication is needed, so you know we’ve got to take a certain truck that holds all that gear, so that when we get on scene we’ve got everything that we need,” he says.
Richey says last year the fundraiser brought out double the amount of what it had before, and hopes even more people will show up and donate this year.
“Hopefully it kind of brings the community a little better together. They come out, they enjoy themselves, they see something going on. That’s what its all about.”
While the show might not change your opinion of snakes, Sheridan says he hopes the audience will take away a new respect for the reptiles.
” Well I’m hoping they learn something about reptiles, how to respect the wildlife, and not destroy everything that God created.”
The fundraiser will be at the Thackerville Volunteer Fire Department off of Highway 53. You can see all the snakes on Saturday from 10 to 6 and on Sunday from 12 to 6.
Gecko survives week in English fridge
BIDEFORD, England, April 2 (UPI) — A woman in southwestern England was surprised when she discovered a gecko, a small lizard native to warmer climes, in the bottom of a bag of apples.
The gecko had survived a week in Wendy Newbury’s refrigerator, The Daily Telegraph reported. She did not notice it until she took the bag out of the refrigerator after the apples had been eaten.
“It then must have started warming up and he started moving around,” Newbury said. “He was such a sweet and amazing little thing and me and my husband, Brian, are both animal lovers so we didn’t want anything to happen to it.”
No one knows how the gecko got into the apples Newbury purchased at a Waitrose supermarket in Holworthy, near her home in Bideford, Devon. The apples were labeled as grown in Kent, but experts say the gecko probably came from Asia.
The Newburys took the gecko to Torbridge Veterinary Center, where staffers named it Gordon in honor of Gordon Gekko, hero of the movie “Wall Street.” The lizard is now being cared for by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Daily Telegraph reported.