WCVB (Boston, Massachusetts) 22 February 11 T Sends Bill To Owner Of Missing Snake - Boa's Owner Billed $650 For Recovery, Sanitation

Boston: Perhaps the snake should have had a Charlie Card?

The owner of a snake that went missing on the MBTA Red Line for a month has been billed $650 for the cost of recovering the snake and sanitizing the train.

The snake, a Dumeril's boa called Penelope, disappeared while Melissa Moorhouse was riding on the MBTA between the Park Street and Andrews Square stations on Jan 7.

Moorhouse immediately reported the snake missing, but a search of the Red Line car came up empty. Moorhouse argues she could have found the snake the day it went missing if MBTA officials allowed her to search for her pet.

She said officials seemed skeptical that the snake even existed.

"They asked me if I was hallucinating and what kind of drugs I had taken," she said.

In its letter asking for payment, the MBTA said Moorhouse had violated its pet policy by not carrying the snake in a carrier. Moorhouse had been wearing the boa, as she sometimes does, wrapped around her neck.

"I was shocked, and I was upset to tell you the truth," Moorhouse said.

Earlier this month, after a MBTA commuter reported seeing a snake on a Red Line car in Dorchester, the train was taken out of service for the day. After a search, Penelope was found on the train.

“To rid the subway car of any traces of germs such as salmonella, which may have been left by your snake, MBTA maintenance crews had to scrub and disinfect the Red Line car in which your snake was found,” wrote Wesley Wallace, MBTA Treasurer.

Moorhouse said salmonella is not a problem with her snake.

"I understand sanitizing the train, but shouldn't that be done anyway? A lot of different people with a lot of different sicknesses are on that train," she said. "People throw up on the train, people bleed on the train. Do they have to pay to get it cleaned?"

The MBTA, in its letter, strongly advised Moorhouse to use a pet carrier if she carried the snake on a train again.
T Sends Bill To Owner Of Missing Snake

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