A £2,000 reward is on offer to catch the culprit who dumped a snake on the street in Honley.
The reward has been put up by animal campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for abandoning the snake.
The 4ft reptile, believed to be a Taiwanese Beauty Snake, was found on Moll Spring on Sunday, February 22.
The snake was found by a veterinary nurse out walking who immediately recognised that it wasn’t native to this country and it’s now being cared for by Donaldson’s Vets on Somerset Road in Huddersfield where it’s recovering from medical treatment for a respiratory infection.
PC Caroline Newsome (pictured below), Kirklees wildlife crime officer for West Yorkshire Police, said: “We are now of the opinion that this snake was purposely dumped/abandoned in the area and had he/she not been found would have not survived our cold temperatures and likely starved to death, causing him/her to suffer a slow death.
“A cruel act and illegal to release a species that isn’t native to the UK.’’
PETA senior vice president Mimi Bekhechi said: “We’re calling on anyone who has information about this case to come forward so that whoever abandoned this animal can be held accountable and prevented from endangering anyone else.
“It takes a disturbing and dangerous lack of empathy to abandon a living, feeling being.”
PETA says that snakes and other reptiles sold in pet shops are either caught in the wild – potentially damaging fragile ecosystems – or bred in cramped, filthy breeding mills.
PETA claims animals are often drugged and stuffed into suitcases so that they can be illegally smuggled across borders. Many don’t survive the journey and those who do usually arrive in poor health.
PETA also stresses that captive snakes are the only species permitted to be kept in enclosures where they cannot unfurl their bodies even though scientific advice from the government’s Animal Welfare Committee states that snakes need to have enough space to fully stretch out.
Anyone with information should contact West Yorkshire Police on 101 quoting crime number 13260108598.
Photo of the snake from Donaldson’s Vets Found Pets Facebook site.
Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.
