DUBAI // A couple got more than they bargained for in the pet shop when they bought a couple of dog beds for their Maltese terriers. Inside one of the beds was a metre-long, 16-month-old royal python.
Steve Bradford and his wife Sarah, who live in The Greens in Dubai, are still getting over the shock.
“We had bought the beds, popped them in the back of the Jeep and went home,” said Mr Bradford. “When we reached home, my wife pulled the cushion inside and opened the bag that comes with it. She screamed and I thought it might be a spider. But then this huge python came out of it and got on top of the groceries we had placed on the kitchen counter.
“My wife hid in the bedroom with the dogs, and I got two sticks and put the snake in the bath tub. I kept checking on it. It kept getting out of the bath and I had to put it back in.”
Mr Bradford telephoned the pet shop who sent a handler to his home to collect the snake.
“The handlers were laughing nervously when they came to collect it,” said Mr Bradford. “They couldn’t understand how it had got there. We found out later that it wasn’t venomous but we both had our arms inside the dog beds while carrying them. The snake could have bitten us or got out in the car. When you buy a dog bed, the last thing you expect is a snake inside.”
This wasn’t Mr Bradford’s first unwelcome encounter with exotic animals. He spent three days in a coma and six days in intensive care after he was stung by a scorpion in the desert near Hatta last year.
“I seem to keep having encounters with dangerous and exotic creatures,” he joked.
A handler at the shop said the snake might have escaped when its cage door was left open by a careless customer.
“A customer left the cage door open and we didn’t know about it. We were loading and unloading at the shop when it happened. We didn’t know it was gone until we went to feed it in the afternoon.”
The python was imported from South Africa and had been in the pet shop for the past four months waiting for a buyer.
“We have permits to sell snakes and many customers, Emiratis, British, Pakistani and Indian expatriates buy them as pets.”
He said the snake cost Dh700 to buy and could grow up to two metres long.
Mrs Bradford said pet shops should be more careful with their animals.
“It’s absolutely terrifying if it had bitten us or our dogs. I find it bizarre that they had lost one of their snakes and weren’t aware of it, which is quite worrying. It’s quite scary that it was a python.”
Wildlife experts said the reptile, also known as a ball python, is one of the most popular snakes to be kept as pets because it is non-venomous and docile, and curls itself in to a ball when frightened.
“The ball python is very popular in the pet trade,” said Johannes Els, head of herpetology at the Breeding Centre for Endangered Arabian Wildlife in Sharjah.
“They are docile creatures. In fact, they curl themselves into a ball and tuck their heads in when frightened. They are no danger to humans. They breed quite easily and the majority are imported from the American and European markets, though their natural habitat is in the West and Central Africa.”
Mr Els, however, said pet shops and residents require a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species permit to import them to the UAE.
Dubai Municipality said pet shops were authorised to sell certain types of snakes including pythons but must have the right permits. Officials also said shops had to adhere to stringent rules and regulations to handle and house them.
pkannan@thenational.ae
