THE ADVERTISER (Australia) 20 September 04 Jail risk for 'snakepit' man (Lisa Miller)
A man who kept hundreds of of reptiles in his suburban Sydney home faces a lengthy jail sentence if found guilty of cruelty or importing exotic animals.
Snake-handler Bradley McDonald kept more than 350 reptiles in his Kingsgrove home but only 184 of them survived his care.
The RSPCA said 170-200 more animals, including snakes and lizards, were found dead inside Mr McDonald's property on Saturday.
He now faces two years' jail and a $22,000 fine for each dead animal, as well as a 10-year jail sentence and $110,000 fine if found to have breached the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, authorities said yesterday.
Investigations into the cause of the animals' deaths were continuing yesterday and Mr McDonald had not yet been interviewed, an RSPCA spokeswoman said.
"We haven't formally spoken to the owner of the home yet but he has made contact with us and we will be interviewing him later in the week," she said.
Officers from the RSPCA, National Parks and Wildlife service, the police, Australian Customs Service and the Department of Environment and Conservation carried out the raid on the St Albans St property.
They found hundreds of snakes, as well as lizards, iguanas, goannas, frogs and three baby crocodiles. Most were native but the collection also included several exotic snake species, which is banned under animal licensing laws.
Many of the creatures were dead, found stuffed into two refrigerators, while those which had survived were in poor condition because of lack of food and water.
Mr McDonald, a lift maintenance worker in his 30s, was believed to have been away in Queensland for a week but has returned.
Yesterday two vehicles - including a Toyota Landcruiser bearing the licence plate "SNAKES" - were parked in the overgrown front yard, while the back yard was crammed with rubbish, empty boxes and an old refrigerator.
Mr McDonald was not at home yesterday and did not answer calls to his mobile phone.
Neighbours said he was rarely seen in the area, with one saying she believed he only used the home as a storage facility for his animals.
He also worked as an on-call snake-handler for the NPWS and was often called to remove snakes from Sydney homes, a spokeswoman for the service said.
She said Mr McDonald was thought to have had licences for several of the snake species found in the home but it was illegal to keep exotic species such as corn snakes, which were also found.
"We don't know where the snakes came from but we know he did have some licences and the service will be checking on whether he has breached any of the license conditions."
Most of the surviving animals were in care yesterday, many needing medical treatment before homes at wildlife centres are found.
Jail risk for 'snakepit' man