Tag Archives: Snake

Million Dollar Listing: because it’s not just 1970s stoners who feed mice to their snakes (and spread Salmonella)

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Someone slipped Ryan a pet snake so he bought some frozen mice but there were no directions so he microwaved it on a plate and cross-contaminated everything in his kitchen.

That’s my take on the latest sleeping-aide for Amy, another Bravo television show that proves money does not override douchebaggery: Million Dollar Listing, New York.

Some of you may be able to watch the video here, http://www.bravotv.com/million-dollar-listing-new-york/season-1/videos/ryan-loses-his-snake, or here, near the 30-minute mark: http://www.vidxden.com/08g1u2c3fsic.

Snake on subway makes for costly salmonella cleanup

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Don’t take your snake on the subway.

That’s what Melissa Moorhouse of Allston, Mass. discovered after her three-foot boa slithered away from under her scarf and around her neck on the Red Line between the Broadway and Andrew stations in Boston.

Penelope the snake was discovered two weeks later in a subway car at the JFK/UMass station.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority decided it had to do a special sanitizing of the car to reduce the risk of salmonella, and then sent Moorhouse a cleaning bill of $650.
 

Sssssssnakes source of sssssssssssssalmonella; mother charged with child abuse

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Snakes shouldn’t be on a plane. And 50 of them shouldn’t be living with young kids (or anyone).

City officials in Albuquerque, New Mexico, say three kids, ages 8, 6 and 2, along with their mother, were found on Monday living with more than 50 live snakes and some lizards.

A city public safety spokesperson called the conditions "deplorable," saying there was pet feces and urine all over the apartment. He also says the people inside were hoarders making it difficult for investigators to move around.

Animal Welfare officials say the snakes were being bred to be sold and were found in boxes.

Cages of mice and rats were also found in the apartment. Animal welfare officials say they were being used to feed the snakes.

CYFD investigators made the discovery after one of the children showed up at school smelling of urine. CYFD then checked out the apartment and found the animals.

City officials say the mother is charged with child abuse. The children are now staying with relatives.
 

Snake or frog, Houston mother and kids still grossed out after finding animal head in frozen veggies

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Ernestine Jamison cooks vegetables for her four children every night in their north Houston apartment.

But when she opened a bag of Pictsweet frozen cut green beans last month, she found more than just green beans.

The Jamison family believes the green and black frozen object nestled in their dinner was a severed snake head.

Jamison called Pictsweet, and they offered her $150.

But she wasn’t looking for money and turned it down.

A letter sent by the company’s insurance provider to Jamison claims Pictsweet “is not responsible for this accident,” and they are “denying liability.”

The company also claims it wasn’t a snake head at all. They say it was a frog head. “But it’s still gross whether it’s a frog or snake,” said Jamison.
 

I am a golden god: Wisconsin boy pets snake, gets Salmonella

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If I owned a fake zoo store, like a pet store, I’d probably call it Serpent Safari. Reminds me of the scene in the 2003 movie, Almost Famous, when the lead guitar player goes off to meet real people, in of all places Topeka, Kansas, just down the road, and after doing some acid, a basement-dwelling dude asks the guitar player if he wants to watch him feed a mouse to his pet snake.

Yes.

Topeka. Real people.

A lawsuit has been filed in Lake County circuit court claiming that a 2-year-old boy contracted salmonella after touching an albino Burmese python.

A lawsuit seeking $50,000 in damages has been lodged against a reptile store and zoo in Gurnee Mills after a 2-year-old boy purportedly contracted salmonella after petting a snake there in December 2007.

Serpent Safari Inc. violated state laws by not providing liquid sanitizer for patrons or having a sign warning of infection risk to children younger than 5 who touch or handle reptiles, according to the complaint, filed Dec. 11 in Lake County circuit court.

Lawyer Michael Maher, who didn’t return telephone messages Tuesday, filed the suit on behalf of Sara Wirtz and her son, Trevor, and Judith Penoyer, all of McHenry County. Without providing specifics, the suit alleges Penoyer also contracted salmonella.

Serpent Safari owner Lou Daddono countered that he’s confident the albino Burmese python that Trevor would have petted did not pass on salmonella. The snake lives at the store and is not for sale.

Daddono, who also denied the negligence claims, estimated more than 400,000 visitors have touched the python without a problem in his 11 years in business. He questioned why it took two years for the salmonella suit to be filed.

Serpent Safari’s lack of sanitizer or signs noting the need for hand-washing after coming in contact with reptiles amounted to negligence, the complaint alleges. More than $50,000 in damages are sought from the business.

Penoyer suffered "severe and permanent illness and/or injuries, externally and internally," says the suit. The complaint states Trevor’s hospital expenses and other medical care will require his mother to pay large sums of money.
 

Pet snakes and babies don’t mix: 4-month-old hospitalized with Salmonella in UK

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I don’t know what it is with parents in the U.K. letting pet snakes hang out with their babies.

For the third time in recent memory, a 4-month-old baby fell seriously ill with salmonella she caught from the family’s pet snake.

The baby girl was admitted to intensive care at St Thomas Hospital with a fever and high heart rate in August, where hospital tests revealed she was suffering from a strain known as salmonella Arizona, which is commonly associated with snakes.

She has recovered since then and an investigation by environmental health officers at Sutton Council identified the most likely source to be the family’s two royal python snakes, which can carry the infection in their gut and spread it through their droppings.

The council has now issued a hygiene warning to owners of exotic reptiles, saying it is essential for them to wash hands thoroughly after handling a reptile and keep the animal away from anywhere food is prepared.

Company says snakehead was planted in T.G.I. Friday’s meal

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T.G.I. Friday said a severed snake head found in a dish of broccoli at one of its upstate New York restaurants was likely planted in the meal.

The Carrollton, Texas, company says Friday it  asked the New York State Police to open a criminal investigation into product tampering. Spokeswoman Amy Freshwater said the snakehead was sent for testing at an independent laboratory that confirmed it had never been cooked and was added to the cooked broccoli.

Enough is enough: I’ve had it with this mofo snakes on this mofo plane

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Samuel L. Jackson would be proud of Australia’s Qantas airlines after four pythons escaped from their carrier and became snakes on a plane.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the plane was grounded and fumigated after the snakes could not be found.

Native to the arid and rocky parts of western and central Australia, the Stimson’s python eats its prey whole — and this includes small mammals, birds, frogs and other reptiles.
 

Baby gets salmonella from snake

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A three-month-old U.K. baby contracted salmonella from her family’s pet snake.

Amanda Vry found out from research on the Internet that her daughter Gabriella could have contracted Salmonella from reptiles and is now looking for a new home for Reg, a Colombian Rainbow Boa.

Reg was bought as a present for her son’s ninth birthday and the family carried out research on keeping reptiles beforehand as Ms Vry was heavily pregnant at the time.

Apparently they didn’t use the Salmonella search term, and it’s unlikely most purveyors of reptilian pets talk about the Salmonella issue.

Ms Vry told BBC News,

"When they said it was salmonella I just did not know how she could have caught it. I went to the hospital’s information centre and typed in ‘salmonella’ and it said it can be caught quite easily from reptiles. We were all shocked after we had carried out the research before. If I had been given this information before we bought it, we would never have bought it and my daughter would never have been ill and my family would not have gone through this."

As Samuel L. would say, "Get those mother***ing snakes away from those mother***ing babies."

Snake on a plane

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Associated Press is reporting that physician Dr. Ed Carruth, flying himself across Mississippi in a one-seat plane, discovered a stowaway gray rat snake when it began ”licking” his arm Thursday.

”I’ve been flying planes for 50 years and over 14,000 hours, and this is the most unusual in-flight emergency I’ve encountered. I guess it wasn’t exactly an emergency, but I did almost hurt myself when I saw it. … Idid some aerobatics. And once he got oriented, he went to the back of the plane."

The story says that when Carruth arrived at Brookhaven Municipal Airport after his flight from Meridian, officials called snake expert Joey Pradillo to remove the reptile and released it into the wild.