Daily Reptile News

Man hoarded snakes, GI Joes, Palm Bay police say

PALM BAY —  — A cleaning crew preparing a foreclosed home for possible resale stepped into a snake pit Tuesday, discovering containers filled with more than 100 snakes — most, but not all, of them dead.

Officials found 17 live snakes in the home at 251 Mayport Ave. They say the homeowner had abandoned the reptiles, which included three-foot-long ball pythons, king snakes and hognose snakes.
The homeowner, Barry Walter, 43, may have been a “hoarder,” according to officials on the scene. A “hoarder” is someone who compulsively collects things — even dangerous or unsanitary items. Also found inside the home were extensive collections of comic books, Star Wars memorabilia and GI Joes.

Walter now faces 122 felony counts of animal cruelty.

“I’ve seen people hoarding animals before, but never anything like this for reptiles,” said Brian Figueroa, spokesman for Brevard County Animal Services.

Figueroa said none of the snakes or other animals were designated species of concern, which would require permits or limitations. Snakes that require permits include the Burmese python or the green anaconda, giant snakes that grow long and can put their prey in suffocating embraces.

“As for the conditions, more than 90 percent of the containers didn’t even have water,” he said. “Some of the carcasses have also been here for more than a month.”

Palm Bay Police booked Walter into the Brevard County Detention Center on Tuesday on a $244,000 bond. He has his first court hearing today.

Walter told police Tuesday he was not a snake breeder, which would require a license to sell certain species.
Got into trouble

PNC Bank filed for foreclosure on the home in February, claiming Walter was behind by $27,000 on his mortgage. Neighbors said they last saw him at the home about March 1

“He said his life had gotten into trouble, and due to medical issues had to move in with his mother,” Officer Sam Ivey said. “As for the house, it’s in foreclosure . . . It’s not livable. To put it mildly, I was disgusted. I’ve been in a lot of houses in 26 years, but I’ve never been in anything like this.”
Animal Services was called to the home at about 8 a.m. Tuesday after a cleaning crew arrived.

“We got up to the door and smelled something real bad,” said Ryan Slingsby, 25, who works for cleaning contractor Inafix. “That was when we saw the dead (python) in the window.”

Slingsby said he has seen dead pets left in foreclosed homes. He put a towel around his face and walked inside.

“We saw all of these containers with the snakes inside,” he said. “There were bags of rats in the refrigerator. This is probably the worst I’ve ever seen.”

Officers wearing gloves and masks were removing the snakes from the home Tuesday morning. All the rotted carcasses were packaged and shipped to the Cocoa landfill, officials said.
In disrepair

Property records show the home was worth $91,000 in 2009, but dropped in value to $56,000 this year. The single-story, two-bedroom home is in disrepair, and a portion of the roof is caved in. City officials said the home would have to be inspected to determine if it is habitable.

In February, Palm Bay’s code enforcement office tried to notify Walter about the condition of wood siding on the home. The city received no response. There were no complaints about animals.

“We were dealing with it from a property maintenance standpoint,” said City Manager Lee Feldman, adding that there is no restriction on reptiles. It would be difficult for city compliance officers to know what is happening inside a private home, he said. “We don’t have the ability to go inside someone’s home.”

Alex Earle, 50, staying with a friend across the street, looked on in horror Tuesday at the stacked containers on the front lawn.

“I used to keep snakes when I was a kid,” Earle said. “If you keep a snake or two, that’s understandable. But this is beyond pets. It’s really just sad.”

DEP again nixes Walmart plan, but Christie wants it approved

TOMS RIVER — Gov. Chris Christie said his administration “is in the process of trying to figure out a way to get this done,” after regulators at the state Department of Environmental Protection denied a coastal development permit for the proposed Walmart off Route 37 West.

“It will get more review, and the DEP commissioner will be meeting with the folks at Walmart to talk about alternatives to their current plan that will make it workable,” Christie said of the rejection, which came despite a sweeping redesign of the Walmart site plan.

As it stands now, the project still would replace too much woodland with pavement and take away habitat for the threatened northern pine snake, state environmental regulators said in denying a coastal development permit.

“There may be a way around it,” Christie told the Asbury Park Press editorial board Tuesday afternoon. “The DEP is working on it.”

It’s the second rejection since June 2006, when developer Jay Grunin and Walmart officials saw their initial proposal turned down after a Coastal Area Facility Review Act application. During an appeal of that first decision, meetings between the developer and staffers at the state DEP led to a new plan for a somewhat downsized store on a site squeezed more onto the Toms River side of the property, leaving much of a portion in Manchester to be preserved as woodland and pine snake habitat.

“Now the process starts to try to rectify some of the concerns they have,” Robert Shea, the applicant’s lawyer, said, striking an optimistic tone. “It was a bit of a surprise to say the least” that pine snakes still are an issue even with plan changes to set aside habitat, Shea said. “That’s going to be hashed out with some of the agency people and case managers.”

Mayors miffed

 

Municipal officials in Toms River and Manchester — who would share property tax revenue from the store straddling their boundary — have been adamant supporters of Walmart since the project was first proposed in 2004. Manchester Mayor Michael Fressola said he and Toms River Mayor Thomas Kelaher will press Christie to intervene.

“Holy mackerel. First they blackmail the guy (Grunin) and forced him to buy the land on Beckerville Road,” Fressola said, referring to Grunin’s plan to mitigate the project with enhanced pine snake habitat west of Lakehurst. “Then they reject him anyway. . . . This organization is creating more problems for municipalities. It’s not a coastal town, for gosh sakes.”

One key factor in the rejection was a review by the state Endangered and Nongame Species Program, which submitted a report March 10 warning that the project “would have direct adverse impacts upon threatened species habitat on site” through the use of 21.4 acres of existing woodland — despite the designers setting aside some woodland for preservation and a buffer area around a snake den site found in 2005.

“Significantly, ENSP’s findings indicate that secondary impacts are likely to include the abandonment of the existing, on-site northern pine snake hibernaculum, due to the failure to adequately buffer this den from the proposed development,” CAFRA reviewers wrote.

The CAFRA report also mentions the DEP’s Landscape Project wildlife habitat maps.

“The Landscape Project is a reliable, scientific tool for guiding where growth should or should not occur,” said Helen Henderson of the American Littoral Society, an environmental group that is critical of the Walmart plan.

The Landscape Project came under attack in a report on the DEP by a Christie administration transition team, which cited it as an example of what they say is illegal overreach by the agency.

Local hearings go on

The CAFRA rejection was issued March 15, said DEP spokesman Larry Hajna. Concurrent with the state application, Walmart’s plans have been the subject of parallel hearings before the Toms River and Manchester planning boards. The hearings will continue this spring while the applicants confer with DEP officials, Shea said.

In a 21-page letter signed by David B. Fanz, manager of the DEP’s Bureau of Coastal Regulation, CAFRA reviewers said the applicants satisfied 13 sets of coastal rules, and enumerated nine shortcomings they found in the Walmart plan. The top problems include:

Pine snakes: Despite the developer’s efforts, there still is not enough buffer area to allow snakes to continue using their habitat, the reviewers said.

Impervious cover: Developer Grunin and Walmart officials proposed using 14.85 acres on the 43.3-acre site for the building and pavement. But citing rules on “special water areas,” the DEP calculated the net land area at 36.6 acres. By that reckoning, impermeable cover would total 40.5 percent of the land area, beyond the 30 percent allowed by CAFRA.

Tree and shrub coverage: The redesigned plan still falls short in terms of vegetative cover, the reviewers said.

Part of the determination on impervious cover and trees revolved around whether the site is governed by CAFRA rules for suburban areas, or those for coastal centers, which allow for more intensive land use and impervious coverage. Reviewers said the suburban planning rules, with their more stringent requirements for keeping open land, would apply in this case.

Snake farmers booked with cruelty to dogs, cats

OAKDALE, La. (AP) – A couple accused of flouting a snake permit law now also faces charges of cruelty to 17 dogs and five cats taken from their property.

Allen Parish Chief Deputy Grant Willis says 44-year-old David Beauchemin and 23-year-old Tawni Beauchemin were booked Tuesday on 22 cruelty charges. They run High End Herps and Happy Hounds Rescue.

Willis says neighbors had long suspected the couple of feeding stray pets to the snakes. He got a warrant when an animal rescue worker brought evidence they were asking $300 for a dog they had claimed to adopt.

Willis says that’s the basis of a theft by fraud charge they also face. He says Beauchemin also was booked with obstructing justice because he ran from deputies and was uncooperative.

They also were cited for keeping 22 snakes more than 12 feet long without the required free permit.

Man Facing Charges in Connection with the Discovery of Deadly Snake

A man from Old Orchard is facing charges in connection with the discovery of a deadly viper snake from Africa behind a movie theater in Saco.

Thirty-five-year-old Karl Ramsdell is accused of keeping illegal wildlife in captivity and failure to have an importation permit for wildlife.

He faces up to a year in jail and 15-hundred dollars in fines.

The 5-foot long gaboon viper was found dead on a rock by a woman who was walking her dog.

It has the largest fangs and the most venom of any snake and is one of the most deadly types of snake in the world, even when dead.

Tatts our lizard lady

MELBOURNE beauty Abbey Lee Kershaw might be one of the most popular models in the world, but she is far from conventional.

Kershaw, who is the face of Gucci’s Flora perfume campaign and has walked the catwalk for the top designers in New York, Milan and Paris, has spoken of her unusual pets and love of tattoos and body piercings.

While most leading models have tiny pooches as their easy-to-carry pets, Kershaw’s choice of companion is a lizard.

She has told Times Online that she has a pet lizard called Annie Hall that she takes with her to the pub.

“They only need feeding once a fortnight. And I’m always travelling, so it’s perfect,” Kershaw said.

“If I had a dog, it would drop dead of starvation.”

She also told of her piercings and tattoos.

The high-fashion favourite has tattoos on the palm of her hand, a peace sign on her little finger, two on the side of her stomach and one on the inside of her lip.

She has piercings in her nose, ears, belly and a nipple.

Lake County tries to protect smooth green snake

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — The Lake County Forest Preserve District will be assisting another slithering critter this season.

Biologists will be counting smooth green snakes on forest preserve property, and hope to capture pregnant females as part of a two-year program to boost their numbers in the wild.

“It’s not quite on the threatened or endangered list but there is a definite decline,” explained Gary Glowacki, a wildlife biologist with the forest preserve district.

Ranging from about 14 to 26 inches in length, the smooth green snake is the distinct bright green color of healthy grass and has a white belly tinged with yellow. Small populations have been found in a few scattered sites in grassland areas.

The forest preserve district has purchased and restored a significant amount of land with areas perfect for the snake, but the population won’t be able to rebound without help.

To that end, the forest preserve board of commissioners on Tuesday approved a $49,500 contract with Lincoln Park Zoo for the development of a species recovery program to include captive breeding and a plan to supplement and/or reintroduce the snake into suitable areas.

The cost will be covered by a grant from a charitable organization that wishes to remain anonymous. The zoo will provide about $23,000 in in-kind services, such as computer modeling, captive breeding and other expertise.

The goal this year is to determine how many smooth green snakes can safely be removed from the wild for breeding or relocation.

Those found this year will be marked and released, although pregnant females will be collected and kept at the zoo, where they will have a better chance of survival. Any offspring will become the base for a new population to be placed in restored areas.

“We get more value out of the new animals than we would if they were left in the wild,” said Joanne Earnhardt, director of the Alexander Center for Applied Population Biology at Lincoln Park Zoo.

The effort is the third in recent years for the forest preserve district involving snakes, which contribute to the ecological integrity and diversity of forest preserve land.

“We’re kind of at the northern range of several snake species,” Glowacki said. “As conditions change and things urbanize, we’re kind of the front lines of species becoming more rare.”

Last fall, Glowacki, who has an avowed interest in snakes, oversaw the construction of a new subterranean home (actually two pieces of concrete septic tank) for the western fox snake.

Its winter home had been cleared for a development and was replaced in an attempt to keep the colony from dwindling.

Glowacki also is a member of the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake Recovery Team, which since 2006 has been searching in northeastern Illinois for the once-prevalent species that is now in danger of disappearing altogether.

That effort may be 15 or 20 years too late, says Glowacki, which is why action is needed now for species like the smooth green.

“It’s much more effective to work on the conservation now. We have a window here to do some good,” he said.

Rare newt found at Rushden site

A group of friends who have discovered a rare breed of newt living in Rushden Gravel Pits are hoping to get the area protected to ensure their survival.
Reptile and amphibian enthusiast Michael Watts visited the site off St Margaret’s Avenue in Rushden about two years ago and found a number of dead frogs.

He decided to try to save some which kept falling into the drains.

With friends, including Matthew Rowtaorn, Lisa Watts and her son, Jordan, Lyndsey Jones, Tina and Craig Winder, he started working at the site.

Over the past two years, they have rescued hundreds of frogs, toads and newts, but their latest find is two male great crested newts, which are a protected species under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Mr Watts said: “We are very excited about this discovery. I used to go down to Rushden pits as a kid and it would be alive with toads, newts and deer. Now that the Mallards housing estate has been built around the area, the wildlife population has dropped dramatically.

“If we can get it protected hopefully the population of amphibians will start to increase again. The conservation of these animals has to be there for future generations because if it carries on how it is there will be no life left down there.”

The friends will be contacting Amphibian Reptile Conservation (ARC) in the hope of ensuring the land is not used for development in the future and more can be done to protect these species.

According to ARC’s great crested newt officer, Dorothy Wright, as much evidence as possible is needed so it can get the local planning authority and Natural England to assess the area to see if measures can be put into place to help the conservation of the species.

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