TORONTO STAR (Ontario) 28 November 06 Snake in the house - Police, firefighters, animal services and zoo officials descend on a Toronto home after a cobra moves in — all to no avail (Curtis Rush)
A Toronto landlord is hissing mad after a poisonous snake slithered into his life and turned it upside down.
A 1.5-metre-long cobra being illegally kept inside an adjacent semi-detached house escaped in late September and has been seen in the property of landlord Phil Belanger.
Since then, both of the affected semis on Church St., near Lawrence Ave. W. and Weston Rd., have been cleared out as a precaution. All efforts to locate the snake have failed.
At this point, no one is sure if the snake is dead or alive. But the city will not allow Belanger's five tenants to re-occupy 16 Church St. until the reptile's status is confirmed.
"I heard they can eat a mouse and be satisfied for at least a week," a frustrated Belanger said.
Not only is he losing the rent, he's still paying heating and mortgage costs. As well, he said there has been considerable damage to the house during the search for the snake.
It all adds up to total losses of $15,000 so far, Belanger estimated. The 46-year-old funeral director said he has been speaking with a lawyer, but has not filed civil action yet. "The problem is who do I sue? The city? The owner of the snake? The property manager of the man who owned the snake?"
Meanwhile, Frank Raso, 31, the owner and landlord of 18 Church St., where the snake apparently originated, said he's also upset. "We're all losing money here. He's not collecting rent and I'm not collecting rent."
Meanwhile, the search for the snake has gone cold.
Animal Services told Belanger they are bringing in a snake expert to track down the escapee. But Belanger said officials have made no promises.
"We're still trying to find ways to capture the snake," said Eletta Purdy, citywide manager for Toronto Animal Services. "We've talked to experts in other communities in the United States. These animals are smart creatures and quite elusive."
Purdy wasn't able to provide a timeline on when the snake expert might arrive. "We're exploring all options," she said.
So far, Belanger has tried using heat lamps to tempt out the cold-blooded creature. Mice were placed in an aquarium to serve as bait. There was even talk of tearing down some walls.
Nothing has worked.
The bizarre tale began on Tuesday, Sept. 26, when a tenant saw the snake in the kitchen. Belanger arrived to see it coiled behind the fridge.
Belanger backed out of the kitchen and called Animal Services, but by the time they arrived, the snake was gone.
He believes it crawled into one of the heating grates in the kitchen "because that was the only place it could have gone."
The next day the search resumed in the basement. The furnace was disassembled, but nothing was found.
"The Animal Control personnel heard (the snake) moving in the ceiling in the basement," Belanger said. But it suddenly stopped moving and the house went quiet for a couple of days.
Then, on the following Friday, "one of my tenants heard it in the ceiling in the basement."
The search was back on.
"I went over in the afternoon and it was quiet," the landlord said. But that evening, about 9 p.m., it was moving again, and this time Belanger located the snake in the basement ceiling.
Standing on a bed, Belanger removed a recessed light and, using a mirror, he saw it about two metres away.
"I had it cornered," Belanger said. "It was between two joists and sitting back against a wall. I put a mirror inside so I could watch it, and then I tried to catch it with a fishing rod. I put a wire through it to try to snare it."
That's when Belanger got the scare of his life. Suddenly, the cobra sat up and fanned out its hood in a strike position.
"Once it did that, I backed right off. I wasn't going to play with that any more. I realized what it was. It wasn't a garter snake," Belanger said.
A cobra bite can be fatal.
Belanger called Animal Services again. But a staff member who responded took one look and said to Belanger, `Uh, oh, we've got a problem. I can't do anything. I'm not equipped for this. I'm going to have to make some calls,'" Belanger said.
Belanger was told to close up the ceiling. The next day, "all heck broke loose," he said.
Police officers, paramedics, the fire department, animal services and officials from the Toronto Zoo descended on the home and cordoned it off.
But the snake had given everyone the slip again.
"We tried finding it but there was no sound whatsoever," Belanger said. The silence lasted until Monday, Oct. 2.
That's when Belanger and officials from Animal Services and the Toronto Zoo, tapping the basement ceiling, heard it move. It was unmistakable.
"It was loud. It's a heavy snake," Belanger said. "It was making a loud swishing sound as it crept over the drywall."
That's the last time the snake has been heard from.
Bob Johnson, curator of reptiles at the Toronto Zoo, has said the snake could be found by tearing down the walls but that would destroy the house.
Meanwhile, the five affected tenants are living elsewhere.
Helder Claro of 18 Church St. was charged by the city with three offences: keeping two prohibited venomous Egyptian male cobras and one venomous gaboon viper. The maximum fine on each count is $5,000.
The other two snakes are in the custody of Animal Services.

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