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ramonmercadoOffline
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PostPosted: 18-02-2009 11:38    Post subject: Snakes Reply with quote

Quote:
Indian charmers want their snakes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7896028.stm

Thousands of charmers still perform across India despite the law

Some 1,000 snake charmers have staged a rally in eastern India, protesting against a law that has made their profession illegal.

Playing their flutes, they marched in the city of Calcutta, demanding the right to perform with live snakes.

Shows featuring cobras and other snakes have been banned in India since 1991.

Snake charmers say the ban threatens the survival of their way of life. Animal rights groups say it should be kept to curb the abuse of snakes.


Many Indian snake charmers continue to perform despite the ban

Raktim Das, the head of India's snake charmers federation, said the government should make the traditional performance legal again.

He also said serum farms should be set up across India where snake charmers could sell venom for medical use.

"We are being consistently harassed by the police for keeping snakes, which are snatched away without paying us compensation," Mr Das said.

Despite the 1991 ban, hundreds of thousands of snake charmers continue to perform in India.






edit to amend title.
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ramonmercadoOffline
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PostPosted: 04-08-2010 12:41    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Indian police arrest man carrying horde of snakes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10802480
By Narayan Bareth BBC News, Jaipur

Cobra recovered by Jaipur police Many of the snakes were reportedly ill-treated

A man has been arrested on suspicion of breaking wildlife laws after he was found with 43 snakes in his car, police in the Indian city of Jaipur have said.

Rajesh Kapoor was arrested with the snakes, including eight protected cobras, in a cotton bag, police said.

Mr Kapoor has previously been linked with idol smuggling and antiques theft, superintendent of police Hawa Singh Ghumariya said.

A snake rescue team was looking after the snakes.

The arrested man runs a fitness centre in Jaipur and told journalists that he hoped to sells the snakes on the international market.

Police say that he claimed to have got the snakes from snake charmers - but their investigations revealed this to be untrue and he was arrested on suspicion of various offences in contravention of India's wildlife laws.

A snake rescue team led by Piyush Shashtri has now been deployed by police to treat the serpents, some of which are suffering from injuries, police said.

They said that three species of snake were found, but only the cobras were poisonous. It is believed they were ill-treated and kept in cruel conditions.

''Snakes are in big demand on the international market for their skins and venom," Mr Shashtri said. "Body parts are also in demand to use in herbal medicine."

Mr Ghumariya said that the snakes will be released into the forest "after completing the legal process".
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BlackRiverFallsOffline
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PostPosted: 04-08-2010 12:47    Post subject: Reply with quote

According to my next door neighbour who was in India in the late 40s, you could book entertainment that involved a chap coming into your mess with a cobra and a mongoose and letting them fight to the death.

There was a fee, usually raised by whip round, that obviously had to cover the guys profit and the cost of another cobra.
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PeripartOffline
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PostPosted: 05-08-2010 10:20    Post subject: Reply with quote

BlackRiverFalls wrote:
There was a fee, usually raised by whip round, that obviously had to cover the guys profit and the cost of another cobra.

Or, every once in a while at least, a mongoose, presumably?
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BlackRiverFallsOffline
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PostPosted: 05-08-2010 22:03    Post subject: Reply with quote

My neighbour did not mention that bit. Maybe you really had to stick around a while to see it.
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ramonmercadoOffline
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PostPosted: 30-08-2010 13:30    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Crawley man claims poisonous snake world record
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-11129938

David Jones Mr Jones said he wanted a challenge that was "out of the ordinary".

A Sussex carpenter is claiming a world record after spending 114 days in a room with some of the world's most venomous snakes.

David Jones, 44, of Crawley, flew to Johannesburg to complete the challenge.

He has been living in a room at a wildlife park with 40 snakes, including puff adders, snouted cobras, boomslangs and black mambas.

Mr Jones completed the challenge on Tuesday but decided to remain in the room for a further week.

The current record is held by South African Martin Smit.

Mr Smit, also known as Mad Martin, spent 113 days in a room with snakes without being bitten.

Mr Jones, whose wife is scared of snakes, said the last person to attempt the record was bitten by a puff adder and narrowly avoided having to have part of his leg amputated.

Mr Jones is using the challenge to raise money for St Catherine's Hospice in Crawley.
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CarlosTheDJOffline
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PostPosted: 31-08-2010 07:47    Post subject: Reply with quote

Funnily enough I found a snake in my garden in Sussex yesterday!
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ramonmercadoOffline
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PostPosted: 31-08-2010 12:05    Post subject: Reply with quote

CarlosTheDJ wrote:
Funnily enough I found a snake in my garden in Sussex yesterday!


Its an Omen! Return to Lewes!
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MythopoeikaOnline
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PostPosted: 31-08-2010 22:38    Post subject: Reply with quote

CarlosTheDJ wrote:
Funnily enough I found a snake in my garden in Sussex yesterday!


An actual snake?
The closest thing to a snake I've ever seen in this country is a slow-worm. The one I saw was dead.
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CarlosTheDJOffline
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PostPosted: 01-09-2010 13:55    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mythopoeika wrote:
CarlosTheDJ wrote:
Funnily enough I found a snake in my garden in Sussex yesterday!


An actual snake?
The closest thing to a snake I've ever seen in this country is a slow-worm. The one I saw was dead.


Well I thought it was a slow-worm but my mate was adamant that it was a python Laughing
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gncxxOffline
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PostPosted: 01-09-2010 18:23    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you thought it was a snake, did you hit it with a rake? And is it now only five foot four?
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Timble2Offline
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PostPosted: 01-09-2010 20:55    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've seen a live grass snake in a meadow down by the Ouse (Cambs).
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ramonmercadoOffline
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PostPosted: 25-07-2011 20:51    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Maritime hiss-tory trips to beach are bliss for pet snake
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0725/1224301314736.html
ELAINE KEOGH

Mon, Jul 25, 2011

IF YOU go for a walk on the beach in Laytown, Co Meath, this summer don’t be surprised to find a man there who’s got a 4.2m python with him.

“It is good for his digestion to swim in the rock pools,” explains Peter Trinder (49), proud owner of Hiss, an albino Burmese python.

Exotic pets are the norm in the Trinder household – Peter and his wife Ann share their bedroom with Hiss and two other snakes as well as a savannah lizard.

The couple and their four children also have an assortment of cats, dogs and birds, and Ann says word has spread about their love of animals. “People have left an injured sparrowhawk and a hedgehog on our doorstep because they know we will look after them.”

Of all their pets Hiss is the most show-stopping. About a year old, he won’t be fully grown until he is four.

“He is only 14 feet at the moment – he will grow to 24 feet and will then weigh 250 lb ,” says Peter. “He is my pride and joy.”

The snake currently weighs 77 lb (35 kilos) and eats rabbits, feeding twice a week.

Peter says the digestive beach trips are important for his pet. “I put him in rock pools and he does his thing. He is getting to the point where it will take two of us to bring him down here,” he says, staying beside Hiss and making sure he does not go near other people or any dogs brought to the beach.

Ann also brings Bosco the lizard there, and he likes to try to climb the rocks.

The couple do not like the recent trend of people buying exotic animals as if “they were a status symbol”.

“They are a commitment and when the novelty wears off people are just dumping them,” says Ann, who adds she was the first to want a reptile, and says “for Valentine’s Day, I get a snake”.

Her husband agrees, saying it makes perfect sense because “chocolates make you fat and roses die after two days”.

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gncxxOffline
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PostPosted: 25-07-2011 22:21    Post subject: Reply with quote

Snakes in Ireland? St Patrick will be spinning in his grave!
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staticgirlOffline
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PostPosted: 02-08-2011 16:07    Post subject: Reply with quote

ramonmercado wrote:
“People have left an injured sparrowhawk and a hedgehog on our doorstep because they know we will look after them.”

[/quote]
Does Hiss get them? Wink
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