Police arresting a suspected drug dealer in Poland got a shock when a snake suddenly appeared out of her bra.
The four-foot long python had reportedly been curled up around the breasts of the suspect.
The woman was arrested over bags of amphetamines that police found in her apartment.
Officers admit they hadn’t searched the woman immediately after her arrest because they didn’t want to breach her human rights and that “no one thought to look inside her blouse.”
An emergency crew was called out in Calgary early Friday to deal with what turned out to be a 1.3-metre-long snake slithering around a man’s apartment.
The fire department responded to a call in the 6700 block of Elbow Drive after the tenant found the corn snake — a variety of constrictor — behind his television.
Firefighters quickly captured the snake, put it in a bag and transported it to the C.A.R.E. Centre’s 24-hour animal hospital in the southeast.
The snake was non-venomous and not dangerous, according to Lindsay Jones, who works at the Calgary Humane Society.
Lindsay added it’s not uncommon for people to abandon unwanted snakes when they move out of rental units.
But it isn’t known how the snake ended up in the apartment, or how long it had been there. Its owner arrived later Friday to retrieve the pet, but the society did not reveal any further details.
A Jamaican man has been sentenced to six months in prison for capturing a crocodile and keeping it as a pet.
Police said neighbors called them after seeing the 4-foot (1.2-meter) reptile tied up near a pool in 26-year-old Donald Cornwall’s backyard.
Cornwall said in court Thursday that he meant no harm to the animal and he always wanted one as a pet.
Crocodiles in Jamaica are found mostly in the island’s south-central mangroves and in swampy areas of the capital.
A golfer who stepped on a crocodile while enjoying a round on a Malaysian course has been awarded £8,500 in damages, it has been reported.
Businessman Hong Kee Siong was attacked by the reptile after he slipped into a marsh looking for his golf ball off the fairway of the A’Famosa Golf Resort.
According to the 48-year-old, he is lucky to be alive and only managed to escape being eaten by the croc after using his golf iron to repeatedly hit it on the head, the Malay Mail revealed.
Speaking on the back of the out-of-court settlement, which has come six years after the incident, the father of two told the paper that he is still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“When I dream, the panic of being unable to escape would come back. It’s a recurrent nightmare,” he said.
Since the attack, the course has fitted fences and warning signs along its ‘Crocodile Nine’ course, which is named after the famed local residents.
Earlier this year, the Willows in North Queensland was named as one of the world’s most dangerous golf courses after a crocodile named Steve moved into a lake there.
SAN DIEGO — Say gecko and most people think of the wisecracking green reptilian mascot in the Geico insurance company television commercials.
They don’t picture a 6-inch-long leopard gecko getting a minuscule CT scan as a pet owner tries to save his ailing longtime companion.
But that’s what brought Erik Fields from Santa Barbara to San Diego, and the result was a success story that two local veterinarians believe is the first reported treatment of a gecko for hyperthyroidism in the world.
It started last July when Fields, who works in ocean research at the University of California Santa Barbara, was concerned about his gecko of more than 13 years, a female named GirlieGrrrl. She began to lose weight, was shedding frequently and had diarrhea. He tried to feed her with a tube, but that did not help. Last fall, Fields’ veterinarian was at a loss, and he referred the gecko to San Diego veterinarian Dr. Thomas Boyer of Pet Hospital of Penasquitos, who has a special interest in reptiles.
Boyer did tests for bad bacteria, parasites and other things typical for the gecko’s symptoms.
When those results were negative, he suspected the gecko might have hyperthyroidism: excessive activity of the thyroid gland. He then referred the gecko in November to Veterinary Imaging Center of San Diego. The center’s founder, Dr. Seth Wallack, believes it is the only freestanding imaging center in the country that serves only animals.
The imaging center has one of only five CT scanners in the country that is designed for the smallest animals, including mice.
The scan confirmed the diagnosis of hyperthyroidism.
Because there are no published reports of a gecko being treated for hyperthyroidism using radioactive iodine, Wallack had to determine how much to give by downsizing doses given to cats and other animals.
After one month of treatment with radioiodine therapy, GirlieGrrrl’s thyroid values returned to normal. A recent three-month checkup showed she is still doing well.
“Hyperthyroid has never been reported in a leopard gecko,” Boyer said. “It’s the first treatment probably of its kind in the world.”
Wallack said that not a lot of people would be willing to go to the lengths that Fields did. And he probably didn’t think a gecko would be a client when he founded his vet imaging center in 2005. At the time, he said peers were skeptical.
“In the veterinary world, they thought it was a little crazy to have an imaging center just for pets,” he said.
Now, the center’s clients include animals from SeaWorld San Diego and the San Diego Zoo.
And, of course, one lucky gecko.
Fields, 46, said he prefers not to discuss the costs of treatment because he wants to focus on the science instead.
Fields said when he read online about a gecko that is 26 years old, he felt the investment was worth it.
He said he gets teased by people who say he should have a pet “that loves you,” but he added that his friends have been exceptionally supportive and helped him feed the gecko when she was sick. He put updates on Facebook.
“I don’t know if I get any love from her, but I really like having her around,” he said.
A LARGE number of deadly snakes on the loose is common during March and April since the reptiles are looking to mate.
This according to snake expert Mike Perry, who was commenting after three people were bitten by green and black mambas in March alone in KwaZulu-Natal.
The latest victim, Thomas Mncube, 38, who was bitten on his left leg by a green mamba, is in a critical condition at a hospital in Stanger.
He was bitten when he entered a freight shipping container at Shakaskraal, in which the reptile was hiding.
The incident comes days after a Russian tourist, who was jogging at Umdloti on the North Coast earlier this month, was bitten twice on the leg, also by a green mamba.
Netcare 911 paramedics attended to the woman’s injuries before she was airlifted to a local hospital.
Netcare 911 spokeperson Jeff Wicks said the snake struck shortly after being run over by a car.
Seven days after that attack, a farmworker was bitten by a black mamba in Richmond near Pietermaritzburg.
Wicks said the farmworker was saved from serious injury by his overalls, which the snake’s fangs failed to penetrate.
It is believed that he had inadvertently driven over the snake with his tractor.
According to medical doctor Anchen Laubscher, it is critical for doctors to treat any snakebite victim as soon as possible, especially with a snake as toxic as a mamba.
He added that it was of critical importance that the victim be treated with the correct anti-snakebite serum.
Usually doctors can gain an idea of what kind of snake it is from the symptoms, but in some cases the snake is also positively identified on the scene.
The following are some things you can do in the event someone has been bitten by a snake:
Reptiles and fish at Tropical Treasures were unharmed during a fire at the Phoenix store on Thursday morning.
The Phoenix Police Department received reports around 10 a.m. that the sprinklers had gone off in the building, which is housed in the Freeway Plaza Shopping Center at 28th Avenue and Bell Road.
Firefighters had the blaze under control within 20 minutes, and were able to keep it from spreading to the attic or outer building, said Scott Walker, a spokesman for the Phoenix Fire Department.
Several reptiles and fish were removed from the building unharmed, police said, and nobody was in the store at the time.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
Officials were investigating the fire and what caused it Thursday.
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