YOMIURI SHIMBUN (Tokyo, Japan) 05 October 05 Pet snake boom sparks worry over safety issues
In the Tokyo metropolitan area in September there were numerous accounts of encounters with reptiles not native to Japan, such as pythons, apparently abandoned by their owners.
The spate of reptilian discoveries surprised police who captured them and left reptile experts worried about people's behavior in keeping these rare pets.
Five police officers from Saitama Prefecture's Ageo Police Station were surprised when they arrived at the bank of a river separating Ageo, Saitama Prefecture, and Saitama city a few minutes past 7 a.m. on Sept. 9. They found a four-meter-long albino python with a body as thick as a man's thigh lying in the grass.
When the officers tried to capture the snake, it put up a fierce battle, hissing and entwining itself around the officers' bodies.
After more than 30 minutes of struggle, the officers finally forced the Burmese python into a large garbage bin.
"The snake must have been as desperate as we were," said a 44-year-old officer regarding his first "arrest" of a snake.
Two days later, a 50-centimeter-long ball python disappeared in a park in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. The snake was reportedly "having a walk" with its 41-year-old owner and slipped away while the owner was asleep on a bench.
A few days after that, a ball python was found in a plastic container on a platform of JR Urawa Station in Saitama, but it turned out to be a different snake from the one that slipped away in the park.
The 50-centimeter snake was found Monday in a park in Shinjuku Ward and returned to its owner Tuesday.
"Snakes are easy to keep in apartments because they're far quieter than cats or dogs," said Kenichi Yomogida, a 38-year-old company employee in Misato, Saitama Prefecture, who owns 15 reptiles.
He said his snakes are like family. They stay wound around his wrists for hours like bracelets and he feels strong affection toward them when they quietly coil up on his lap as he watches television, he said. He feeds them frozen mice. When they have a hard time shedding their old skins, he helps them by peeling the remaining skin off.
An increasing number of people have started to keep snakes as pets.
An employee of a pet shop in Tokyo said the shop sells six or seven snakes a month mainly to men in their late teens to 30s.
"It seems the owners enjoy keeping snakes in different ways," the employee said. "Some people allow bigger ones to roam free in their homes, while others keep several of different varieties together in terrariums."
"Ball pythons have become extremely popular in the United States over the last five years," said Akira Tomizu, writer of Vivarium Guide, a magazine about reptiles.
According to Tomizu, there are breeders in the United States who specialize in breeding snakes native to Africa, with those of rare colors or patterns fetching high prices, similar to the way colorful koi and goldfish are highly valued in Japan.
Recently, some snakes for sale in Japan have been priced at several million yen, apparently due to their popularity in the United States. There are also individuals in Japan who enjoy breeding snakes.
Many snakes also are sold through Internet auctions.
"I'm afraid that some people may be buying snakes through the Internet without enough knowledge of how to keep them," Tomizu said.
The Japan Snake Center in Gunma Prefecture accepted the Burmese python found in Ageo. A 60-year-old man claimed ownership of the huge snake on Sept. 20, saying an earthquake damaged its cage and the snake, which he had kept for 16 years, escaped through a crack.
The center also accepted the as yet unclaimed ball python found at JR Urawa Station.
Ueno Zoo unwillingly keeps various reptiles captured by the police, and its facilities are full of such animals. In September, it held a special exhibition of these reptiles.
A tragic fate awaits tropical snakes once they leave their owners or are abandoned--many of them end up being eaten by crows or starve to death. Some die from winter cold.
"I understand those people who want to have rare animals, but they should learn about the nature of these animals and be careful in keeping them," said Hideyuki Takahashi, who is in charge of keeping reptiles at the zoo.
"As reptiles generally have long lives, people should be prepared before buying them that they will likely have them for a few decades," he said.
Pet snake boom sparks worry over safety issues