PATTAYA MAIL (Pattaya City, Thailand) 26 November 04 Snake wrangler busted for hustling in beer bar - Massive python had mouth sewn shut with fishing line
Crime suppression police received a complaint on November 12 from a foreign tourist saying a man was touting a huge python through the beer bars in Pattaya, hustling tourists to take photos with the snake for money. Potential customers were appalled by the huge reptile and had no intentions of getting close enough for a photo souvenir. More seriously, the snake’s mouth had been sewn shut with plastic fishing line, a cruel method of abuse.
Chalao Insa-Ard was arrested for multiple offenses, including cruelty to animals when he was found to have sewn his python’s mouth shut with fishing wire.
Pol. Maj. Sutham Chaoseethong sent officers to the beer bar groups on Soi 2 where they found the man, later identified as Chalao Insa-Ard, 40, a Banglamung resident, with a big python measuring 1.5 meters long and 12 inches in diameter. The snake’s mouth was sewn shut with fishing line to prevent it from biting.
Chalao could not produce a Wild Animal Preserve License, but only the Wild Animal Preserve Declaration papers according to Code No. 2 of the Preservation and Protection of Wild Animals for the year 2002. Chalao had not yet obtained a legal license for the possession of a wild animal.
When officers questioned Chalao, he told them he had bought the python to earn money by hustling tourists to take a photo with the animal wrapped around their necks for 100-200 baht per photo. He was charged with illegal possession of a protected species and with cruelty to an animal. Officers seized the snake and handed it over to authorities tasked to shelter it in an appropriate habitat.
Snake wrangler busted for hustling in beer bar