Just one month after New Westminster police and parks workers had to corral a 1.22-metre long corn snake into a box, parks workers again have had to collect a snake from Queen's Park.
The snake is a 38-centimetres ball python that was likely dumped in the park late last week.
Unlike the last snake-in-the-grass, this one was hand delivered, according to James Short, the animal services officer who is rumoured to be the only one in the city brave enough to handle snakes.
"Someone walked up to parks staff, handed them a box with a snake inside and said, 'Here we found this in Queen's Park,'" he said. "Whether or not they were dumping it or actually found it, who knows?"
Animal control held the snake overnight before transferring it to the Reptile Rescue, Adoption and Education Society, a non-profit in Richmond that takes in unwanted or stray snakes and adopts them out to new homes.
Rescue society founder Val Lofvendahl, said the snake, which she has dubbed "Ayo" after the West African Yoruba word for "joy," is only about two months old, too thin and showing signs of stress.
Lofvendahl said Ayo was most likely abandoned by someone who got him recently and decided they didn't want a snake. Had Ayo not been found, Lofvendahl said, the snake likely wouldn't have lasted more than a couple weeks.
"It's quite cold at night. These guys like around 90F temperatures during the day," she said.
Lofvendahl said if you have a snake you don't want, letting them go in a park is irresponsible and dangerous.
"Don't let them go. At the very least, take them in to animal control," she said. "You're sentencing them to death."
Once healthy again, Ayo can be put up for adoption by the rescue society but unfortunately, no one in New Westminster will be allowed to adopt him as the city's wildlife bylaw prohibits pythons and boas.
"Anything that can constrict is a safety hazard, especially when you're dealing with little kids and they're unattended. Things can happen," Short said.
Kika, the 1.22-metre long orange and white corn snake picked up in Queen's Park on Aug. 21 is still at the rescue society, w said, and she is "lovely to handle."
brichter@royalcityrecord.com
