Hi,
Some of you may know that I've been a bit distracted since late January when I took in 55 abandoned snakes. These snakes had been left in an unheated building without basic care for an unknown amount of time (but it was certainly more than just a few days). Since then I've been caring for them, vetting them, and getting them ready to go to new appropriate homes. Many died, many are still ill, but many have recovered enough to have found new homes.
Today was the court case against the owner. The Commonwealth's attorney in the area had decided to only charge him with 4 counts: 3 for the 3 dead snakes on the scene at the time of discovery, and one count for the 55 living ones that I took in. (Because reptile neglect/abuse isn't a felony, they felt pursuing all 58 counts would be fruitless. The several hundred dead rodents weren't even included in the cases at all.)
After hearing the lame excuse that the guy couldn't get down to the location to offer food, water, or heat (his car had died for several weeks), the judge gave him 120 days in jail, but suspended 118 of them. So, he'll get two days of jail this weekend, plus the fines and court costs. Would it have been more had it been furry animals? Probably. But, I'm thrilled that he got ANY jail time, considering the bias this society has against reptiles. I do feel that the owner did not have any intention of harming the animals, just got in over his head. NO excuse, but at least he isn't evil at heart, in my opinion.
Anyway, I am slowly finding homes for these animals, and will hopefully soon get back to my regularly scheduled life... the one with fewer than 100 reptiles to care for.
To the many of you who offered assistance to me while I was trying to identify and re-home these animals, my sincere thanks is extended. To those of you who have been moral support, I'm eternally grateful.
Thanks for listening,
Bonnie Keller
VA Reptile Rescue
www.vareptilerescue.org
