MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) – A Canadian couple has been charged with animal cruelty following the discovery of 40 ball pythons in a motel room last week, The Canadian Press reported.
The exotic snakes, ranging in size from 30 to 137 cm, were found unattended and dehydrated last Thursday in plastic storage containers in a room at the Bell City Motel in Brantford, Ontario.
A man and a woman, whose identities are kept under wraps, have been charged with “causing distress to an animal, failing to provide care necessary for an animal’s general welfare and failing to provide adequate and appropriate water,” The Canadian Press said on Friday.
Owning a python is illegal in Brantford as it contravenes the City’s Animal Control Bylaw, according to local authorities.
The ball python is the smallest of the African pythons and is not considered dangerous compared with the African rock python that escaped from its enclosure and strangled two brothers aged four and six who were sleeping in an apartment above an exotic pet store in another Canadian town earlier in August.
The owner of the pet store in Campbellton, New Brunswick, is under investigation for criminal negligence.
