Update: Snake in the garage? Who not to call for help

People on our Facebook page have identified the snake as either a tiger snake, juvenile king cobra or Cape Cobra.

Express has tried to contact Robert Kelly via email as well as telephonically to pass on details of people who can help him.

So far we have been unsuccessful in reaching him.

ROBERT Kelly found a snake in his garage and not having a mongoose handy to deal with it, a few concerns come to his mind.

This is his account of the quite startling experience.

1. I am no snake expert whom can identify what the snake is and what danger it poses.

2. I have two small children that also have no idea what kind of snake it is and what danger it poses.

3. I have a wonderful dog that would probably want to play with the snake and not knowing if it poses a danger at all, might die from or choke on the aforesaid snake.

Having taken all the above into account, I took a photograph of the snake (from quite a distance and using all of my zoom), and decided on the following appropriate action in the following sequence:

1. I called my mother as I am alarmingly afraid of snakes. My mother arrived and gave great assistance in terms of moral support.

2. I took the picture to the local vet on the corner of my road. They told me they only treat sick snakes and would not come to collect the snake. Fair enough I suppose, I could have lied and said the snake was sick, but I did not.

3. Call the SPCA in Kempton Park, they would know? Yes, they would know whom to contact in such cases of uncertainty surrounding the snake and after a short wait provide two numbers.

4. Call numbers gladly received from the SPCA and number one goes to a snake handler who is currently in PE, no joy on that front. Number two refers me to number one who is currently in PE, no joy on that front either.

5. Light bulb moment: call the municipality. After a minute or two listening to the phone ring, someone from the municipality answers and truly sounds deeply concerned with the dilemma facing myself and now my mother.

After hearing my concerns, they refer me to the fire department in Kempton Park but only after insisting that we phone directory inquiries for the number as they do not have the number for the fire department at hand, despite being the local municipality.

6. Local fire department it is, they agree with us on answering that with two children due to arrive home from school and not knowing what type of snake has made our home its home, is very serious indeed or simply put in their words verbatim, “A very big problem, let me talk to our supervisor”.

Mr supervisor kindly advises that the snake does not sound like it is dangerous and due to the number of snake catchers that have popped up in the area, the municipality and emergency services no longer deal with snake relocations, it may be worth our while calling a local pet shop.

7. Four local pet shops contacted to deal with the snake that I have by now given water while it waits to find out where it will be given a new address.

Two pet shops promise to call back and I am still waiting. A rather large pet shop in Pomona gives me hope in claiming they can relocate the snake, no problems and within 15 minutes.

The punch line is that they want to charge R350 to do so … end of call. Pet shop 4 required the same amount of money but failing having the available cash, they recommended shooting the snake with a stick 250 meters down the driveway to the road.

The suggestion from pet store 4 did not suit as I did not want the snake to die crossing a busy intersection to the veld or else I would have called a company that deals in snake killing rather than snake relocation.

In summary, the snake is still in the garage. Vets won’t help (unless snake is sick), SPCA won’t help other than provide numbers for people that specialise in catching snakes (they are in PE), municipality and fire department won’t help (it is easier to see independents charge an outrageous R300 plus to do so as opposed to getting the service for free, unless of course the snake is on fire, pet shops would rather you either pay R300 plus or shoot the snake away with a stick.

What am I now to do?