TORONTO SUN (Ontario) 08 October 06 Sneaky snake on the loose (Brodie Fenlon)

You half expect Samuel L. Jackson to bust down the door and shout, "I've had it with these mother----ing snakes in this mother----ing house."

But there are no hissss-trionics on this quiet street in Weston, where a cobra-like reptile is snaked out somewhere inside a two-storey roominghouse.

Instead, two serious-minded animal control officers stepped carefully into the building yesterday at 16 Church St., just north of Weston Rd. and Lawrence Ave. W., as they've done regularly since Sept. 27 when a tenant first spotted the creature coiled behind the refrigerator.

It's as long as 2 1/2 metres, prone to getting its back up, and a champion at hide-and-go-seek.

Despite its minuscule brain, the snake is a gigantic nightmare for landlord Philip Belanger, who has scrambled to house and feed his five male tenants after they were forced out by the animal.

"I've had a few sleepless nights. I'm dreaming about snakes," he said with a laugh. "I just really don't know what to think."

In just 10 days, the slippery reptile has forced an evacuation of the building, the basement ceiling to be ripped out, and a request for antivenom -- just in case -- from officials in New York.

It has also prompted visits by police, fire, paramedics, the Toronto Zoo, animal control and Toronto Public Health, which slapped a ban on occupancy of the building by order of the city's medical officer of health, Dr. David McKeown.

"The snake is living in the walls. It's a dark place, a secure place and it can live off mice once a week," said Toronto public health spokesman Rishma Govani.

"The snake is loving it. It's in snake heaven."

When Belanger first saw the snake behind the fridge last week, he closed the door and called animal control. When he returned, it had disappeared, likely through an old heating grate.

Two days later, he and a tenant heard the snake moving in the basement ceiling. They cornered it between two joists and peered at it using a mirror poked through the hole of a removed pot light.

"I didn't know what kind of snake it was," Belanger recalled. "I actually attempted to catch the thing with a snare and then it puffed up and flared like a cobra. I said, 'Guys, we've got a problem here.'"

Indeed, "all hell broke loose" the following day as the house was surrounded by emergency vehicles and a few police officers who carried weapons, Belanger said.

It's believed the snake came from the unit next door, which neighbours say is rented by a man with a connection to an exotic pet store. He has been seen only a few times since. A few days ago, officials removed a gaboon viper from his unit, Belanger said.

While docile, the gaboon's venom can be fatal and its bite can causes intense pain and swelling in humans.

Meanwhile, the missing snake, believed to be a cobra or python, has so far evaded several searches, special traps and the lure of a heat lamp. If all else fails, Belanger said he will have to fumigate.

Belanger said his primary concern is the welfare of his tenants, whom he put up in other properties he owns. "I can't expect these people to pay me rent. I have to look after these guys."

And he praised officials with animal control and the Toronto Zoo. "They have been so fantastic," he said.

http://torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2006/10/08/1978341-sun.html



TORONTO STAR (Ontario) 08 October 06 Deadly spitting cobra on the loose (Nick Kyonka)

If, as the old saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure, then surely residents of the Church St. and Weston Rd. neighbourhood of Toronto have learned that one snake's heaven is an entire community's nightmare.

For the past week-and-a-half, an escaped spitting cobra has been slithering through a local townhouse, causing two families to leave their homes and giving animal control officials headaches because of its elusive ways. So far, the venomous reptile has been enjoying its vacation away from captivity by hiding out in the walls of the home, well away from the grasping hands that would gladly take it back into custody.

"It's not a public risk because it's contained in the walls, so it won't be moving out that way," said Rishma Govani of Toronto Public Health yesterday. "Basically, the snake is in heaven because it's a dark space that it's in and it's a secure place where it's in and there's mice running around, which it could eat for a couple of weeks."

Who the snake belongs to, how it got loose, and even what species it is are unknown, Govani said, but neighbours have said the creature belonged to one of the building's tenants and the house is well known to animal control services. Govani confirmed animal control had visited the house before, but would not confirm reports other venomous snakes and a Komodo dragon were previously removed from the premises.

Canadian snakes on the loose

- Aug. 7, 2005: A 1.2-metre-long boa constrictor was let loose in Cambridge, Ont., following a break-in. It is illegal to keep exotic pets in Cambridge, but the bylaw is difficult to enforce.

- June 16, 2005: Resident in Newestminster, B.C., were warend to watch out for a snake described as having a head the size of a fist, after it was spotted entering a heating vent in an apartment building.

- July 10, 2004: Pinky, the albino California mountain king snake, had been missing for a week from the Duke family home in Calgary when it came crawling out of a neighbour’s drain.

- July 5, 2003: A 50-centimetre orange-and-black snake was found on a sidewalk in Winnipeg where he had gone to sun himself.

- May 9, 2000: Toronto Public Health department laid 14 charges after venomous snakes were found in an apartment on Queen St. W. and a saw-scale viper - considered to be the deadliest species in the world - got loose. Source: Star files, CP, Compiled by Victoria Kent

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1160259012569&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News

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