Another Large Snake Turns Up In Austrian OAPs Toilet Due To Popularity Of Exotic Pets
Cops in Austria have been called out to another case of a snake appearing in someone’s toilet in what is becoming a bizarre trend in the central European nation.
The police received a call from an apartment in the capital Vienna after 68-year-old resident Eva Kastner spotted a metre- (3.3-ft) long python slithering on her toilet seat on 9th July.
The woman took a photo of the reptilian intruder and sent it to the police who called the wildlife service. Workers then came to retrieve the specimen and take it to an animal shelter.
It was later transferred from the shelter to the Forchtenstein Reptiles Zoo in the town of the same name.
It is unclear where the large snake had come from and who its owner was, and it comes hot on the heels of another similar case that took place in the city of Graz on 5th July.
In that incident, 65-year-old Walter Erhard got the fright of his life when he popped to the toilet in the morning and felt a “pinch” in his genital area when he sat down to relieve himself.
He jumped to his feet and turned around to notice a 1.5-metre- (4.9-ft-) long albino reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus) – one of the three heaviest snakes – staring back at him.
Red Cross volunteers took the bitten OAP to hospital, where he received treatment for “minor injuries” before being discharged.
It was found that the specimen had escaped from the apartment of the man’s 24-year-old reptile-enthusiast neighbour.
It “presumably entered the toilet through the sewage system”, according to reptile expert Werner Stangl.
The young man, who owns 11 non-venomous snakes and a gecko, faces charges for negligent bodily harm.
The week before, two other incidents involving snakes made news in Austria. In one case, a 24-year-old man was killed by his pet horned viper (Vipera ammodytes).
In the other, cops checking that a released prisoner was complying with his parole requirements found 10 snakes and two tarantulas at his apartment in the state of Carinthia.
One of the reptiles was an Australian taipan (Oxyuranus) – one of the deadliest known snakes.
Helga Happ of the Happ Reptile Zoo in the city of Klagenfurt said the reason for the high number of snake-related incidents in Austria is the growing popularity of keeping exotic animals as pets.