Reward of Up to £2,500 Offered After 29 Snakes Abandoned in Sunderland

For Immediate Release:

21 February 2020

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

REWARD OF UP TO £2,500 OFFERED AFTER 29 SNAKES ABANDONED IN SUNDERLAND

PETA’s Offer Comes After Serial Snake Dumper(s) Left Animals for Dead by Bins

Sunderland – PETA is offering a reward of up to £2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for callously dumping 29 snakes in pillowcases near Farringdon Fire Station. According to reports, 13 royal pythons were abandoned on 13 February – resulting in the death of at least one snake – and on 15 February, another 16 snakes were dumped in the same location. The RSPCA believes the cases are connected, and anyone with information is urged to call the inspectorate appeal line on 0300 123 8018.

Many captive exotic animals who are abandoned in a non-native habitat quickly succumb to starvation, dehydration, or attacks by predators or fall victim to local parasites and diseases to which they lack a natural immunity.

“We’re calling on anyone who has information about these cases to come forward so that whoever abandoned these animals can be held accountable and prevented from endangering anyone else,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “It takes a disturbing and dangerous lack of empathy to dump so many animals.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – notes that snakes suffer immensely in the exotic “pet” industry. Many are torn away from their natural homes and shipped hundreds or thousands of miles in appalling conditions, only to be shoved into a small tank and later dumped, as these animals were.

In addition, snakes are the only species not afforded even a minimum tank size under current regulations, which means that most of the UK’s 400,000 captive snakes are kept in tanks so small that they can never stretch out fully, causing intense suffering and an early death. PETA recently launched a new campaign urging the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs to amend current regulations immediately to ensure that snakes in pet shops, breeding facilities, and mobile zoos have at least enough space to stretch out fully, thus reducing their stress and suffering.

For more information about helping animals, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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