Exotic pets
Would you chop off your head to quiet a migraine? Some North Union Township residents living near the now-shuttered Kennedy School are subscribing to that same overkill logic in threatening to burn a stand of woods in order to kill a rogue boa constrictor.
Arson doesn’t make any sense. Fire is a real hazard to surrounding neighbors. A boa constrictor is just a maybe waiting to happen. And the snake might not even be there.
Noah’s Ark Animal Shelter reported that the snake was turned loose several weeks ago, and was apparently released in the woods when it became too large (between 8 to 10 feet) for its owner to handle. There are two things on this snake’s mind: food and warmth. Lack of either will kill it, and that might have already happened. People living nearby are worried that it just might show up in their garage or house looking for a warm spot or that it might swallow a small pet to salve its hunger. Yet there have been no reports, at least that we are aware of, that pets have gone missing or that the snake has been spotted.
This snake might never turn up. Residents would be wise to keep doors and windows near the ground closed but beyond that there isn’t much to do. Burning fields and woods isn’t much of an answer. Unfortunately there isn’t much the public can do to protect itself from exotic animals. Last month the shelter took in an alligator that started as a pet and outgrew its home. People should know better than to try and domesticate wild animals, but some don’t. There are always those who think that they and their “pets” will be the exception. Too late, they find out there are few, if any, exceptions to the rule that the best habitat for wild animals is not the living room.
As a shelter worker said, “More people in Fayette County are purchasing alligators and trying to domesticate them. This isn’t an animal you domesticate. You feed him or he eats you.”
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? One shouldn’t need hit over the head to understand that.