40 pythons are now in the care of the Brant County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). The snakes were seized on Thursday night from a Colborne Street motel in Brantford.
The pythons range from 30 centimeters to 1 ½ meters in length.
A manager at the Bell City Motel on Colborne Street says the snakes belonged to a local couple who had stayed in the room for only one night.
He says they had been evicted by their landlord, who also called the local police to inform them they had taken the snakes to the motel.
The manager, who did not want his name used, says the couple were out for dinner Thursday evening when police arrived.
The discovery at the motel comes less than two weeks after two young brothers were strangled to death in New Brunswick by an African rock python.
On Aug. 5, a 15-foot python that was being kept in an apartment above a pet store in Campbellton, escaped its enclosure and made its way into the living room where the brothers, ages 4 and 6, were sleeping while visiting with a friend.
A Brantford Police Service release states, “The snakes were not being suitably cared for and were in distress”. The release goes on to say the pythons were being store in several plastic storage bins.
That’s how SPCA agent Brandon James says he found them, “I didn’t notice the magnitude, large and small totes. We removed them all from their containers.”
It is illegal to own a python in Brantford under the city’s Animal Control bylaw.
All of the snakes will be transferred to a reptile facility.
With files from the Canadian Press
