A pet-owner has been banned from keeping animals for 10 years after several dead snakes were found piled on top of one another in cramped tanks. An RSPCA inspector described the garage where the snakes were being kept as having a 'strong smell of death', CheshireLive reports.
Vincent Parkes, of Adlington Drive, Northwich, left a number of large pythons 'to deteriorate over weeks to months' without water and adequate heating inside vivariums that were too small. Although six of the snakes were rescued - one of which later perished - several were already dead 'lying on top of each other' in one of the tanks.
Parkes, 34, who had been keeping the snakes in a garage at his sister’s home in the Leftwich area of Northwich, was sentenced at Chester Magistrates’ Court last month. He was handed a suspended prison sentence and banned from owning animals for 10 years. RSPCA inspectors Naomi Morris and Nadine Pengilly attended the garage on December 3, 2021, and found several snakes had perished in two of 16 vivariums that were crammed inside.
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The court heard that while the inspectors were at the property, Parkes ran off with a large plastic tub in which he appeared to have put the dead snakes in. Inspector Morris said: "The tanks were around 8x2ft and there was no water in any of them.
"The wiring looked jumbled up and although the heat was on all of these tanks were plugged into extension leads that ran off one cable attached to the house. I had never seen an electrical set-up like this before and was concerned about its safety.
"The doors of the garage were hanging off the frame, which had come away from the brickwork so the tanks would have been exposed to the cold."
The court heard that Parkes told the inspectors that 'he had a mate checking in on the snakes' while he was away on a two-week holiday and that his mother and sister 'kept on turning the electricity off'. A veterinary surgeon specialising in exotic animals stated that it was highly likely that 'prolonged inactivity' from being in an under-sized vivarium was a factor in the severe constipation that was found in the colon of one of the six snakes that died.
Rotten lamb carcasses - one infested with maggots - were found in two of the tanks. Most of the pythons rescued from the garage were in a poor condition, with the one who later died weighing just 5.1kg.
Three of the others who survived were underweight with prominent spines. They weighed 14.3kg, 12.3 kg and 8.1kg. Another weighed 24.5kg, while only one python was deemed to be in a healthy state and weighed 28.4kg.
The vet concluded: "These snakes did not have a suitable environment. Not one of the reptiles was living in temperatures near to those necessary for this species.
"The size of the enclosures was unsuitable and there was a lack of water and adequate nutrition, as well as a lack of veterinary treatment. The health of these animals was allowed to deteriorate over weeks to months without intervention."
Parkes was also handed an 18-week prison term - suspended for 18 months. At the same hearing he also received an eight-week suspended prison sentence for three non-animal cruelty offences - to run consecutively - making the total prison sentence 26 weeks, suspended for 18 months.
The defendant was ordered to attend 35 rehabilitation activity days and complete 80 hours of unpaid work. He will also have to pay a victim surcharge of £154 as well as court costs of £1,000.
After they were recovered from the property, the surviving snakes were taken into the care of Cheshire Reptile Rescue.
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