THE GAZETTE (Montreal, Quebec) 04 August 07 Snake in an apartment: a real-life sequel; One metre long. Python likely escaped from neighbours (Max Harrold)
Isabel Zuniga just wanted a glass of water in the middle of the night, but what she found instead in her kitchen made her screech: a metre-long royal python.
"I screamed so loud I woke everyone up," said Zuniga, 39, recounting how she spotted the gold and brown snake about 3:30 a.m. yesterday.
"I was screaming, the babies were crying, it was crazy," said Zuniga, who lives on the top floor of a triplex with seven relatives, including three children under age 3, on Ste. Catherine St. E. near Pie IX Blvd.
Family members retreated behind closed doors and called 911. Police soon arrived, she said.
An officer placed the reptile in a plastic bag before taking it to an animal shelter, Zuniga said.
Her son, Ramon Ramos, 20, said neighbours who live downstairs lost a snake several weeks ago that matched the intruder's description.
"It must have come up through the hole in the wall" in a cupboard, he said, pointing his toe at some pots still askew under the kitchen counter.
The neighbours "kept the snake in an aquarium about the size of a microwave with just a piece of cardboard on top," Ramos said. "That's too small for such an animal."
The building's tenants have no-pet clauses in their leases, he added.
Residents of the apartment from which the snake had disappeared were not home yesterday afternoon.
Royal pythons can reach nearly two metres in length but are non-venomous. They constrict their prey - usually mice - and can live for 20 to 40 years.
In a strange coincidence, 25 exotic snakes were stolen from Mirdo Importations Canada Inc., a snake breeder on Notre Dame St. W. in St. Henri, in early July, Montreal police said.
Hayk Bosnakyan, a part-owner of Mirdo, said about half the stolen snakes were recovered Thursday by police.
They were found at the home of a former Mirdo employee, Bosnakyan said.
The other serpents are still missing, he said.
Another Mirdo partner went to the Berger Blanc animal shelter yesterday, where the snake found in Zuniga's apartment had been taken, Bosnakyan said.
That snake was not one of those stolen last month, he said.
Johanne Côté, Berger Blanc's director, said another person besides the man from Mirdo had called to claim the snake.
Whoever owns the snake will have some explaining to do, she said.
"Why wasn't it better supervised? Why was it allowed to get out?" she asked.
"It's hungry and pretty stressed out," she said of the reptile, adding the shelter planned to feed the snake, whose sex had not been determined.
Julie Hébert, a veterinarian at the Bird and Exotic Animal Hospital in Notre Dame de Grâce, said royal pythons (also known as ball pythons because they curl up when nervous) are "very shy and make great pets. That's why lots of people have them."
Sonia Lacombe, an employee at Toozoo, a pet store on St. Laurent Blvd. that sells pythons, said they are usually priced between $100 and $130 each.
Gingras urged the public not to handle or try to catch a snake, should one be spotted. Just call 911 and let animal control experts intervene, he said.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=19f720a3-6a14-432a-97a5-86ddb47c4194
LE JOURNAL DE MONTRÉAL (Quebec) 04 August 07 Surprise De Taille Une Famille Découvre Un Python Dans Sa Cuisine (Louis Mathieu Gagné)
C'est un réveil pour le moins abrupt qu'a connu une famille de Montréal hier en découvrant dans sa cuisine un serpent python de trois pieds de long.
Yvette Ramos, 17 ans, dormait à poings fermés dans la nuit de jeudi à hier lorsqu'elle a entendu un cri de frayeur en provenance de la cuisine de son logement du 4231, rue Sainte-Catherine Est.
"Ma mère s'était levée vers 3 h pour aller aux toilettes. Quand elle a vu le serpent, elle s'est mise à crier", raconte la jeune femme, souriante maintenant que le choc est passé.
Le serpent, un python royal de trois pieds de long et de deux pouces de diamètre, se tenait au centre de la cuisine.
"C'était épeurant pour moi, J'ai une phobie des serpents. Ma fille a alors appelé la police", raconte Isabel Zuniga.
Des policiers ont alors accouru. Ils ont capturé l'animal, non venimeux, puis l'ont placé dans un sac de plastique. Ils ont ensuite tenté de retrouver son maître.
"J'ai été surpris d'apprendre qu'il avait un serpent ici car le propriétaire interdit les animaux, dit William Doulombe, un voisin. Ma femme n'a pas retrouvé le sommeil de la nuit."
Incapables de retracer son maître, les policiers l'ont d'abord ramené à leur poste de quartier, avant de le remettre au refuge pour animaux Le Berger blanc.
Selon Yvette Ramos, l'animal appartient à une autre locataire de l'immeuble, habitant le logement sous le sien. "Elle l'a perdu il y a un mois. Elle pensait qu'il était mort", affirme-t-elle.
Force est de constater que ce n'est pas le cas. L'animal s'est frayé un chemin jusqu'au logement de la famille en passant sans doute par un trou dans le mur.
Isabel Zuniga n'est pas près de se remettre de ses émotions. "C'est dégueulasse un serpent. J'ai jeté toutes les casseroles de l'armoire d'où il est sorti. Je ne sais pas si je vais pouvoir dormir cette nuit", dit-elle.
Le Berger blanc recueille de huit à dix serpents par année. Selon eux, le python royal peut mesurer 20 pieds et peser une quarantaine de livres. Il peut vivre 40 ans. On est donc en présence d'un spécimen d'environ un an, nous dit-on. "Le python pourrait être dangereux (pour des enfants) s'il a faim ou s'il mue. Mais c'est pas un animal agressif ", dit Johanne Côté du Berger blanc.
http://www.canoe.com/infos/societe/archives/2007/08/20070804-084500.html
