The snake was found on Tuesday, October 20, beside the A18 motorway near Golnice. The nearly 2.5-metre-long boa constrictor was lying beneath an overpass. It crawled between the stones and tried to hide. Then it died from hypothermia. – Someone most likely got rid of it, says Piotr Klasa, a veterinarian. – It is a heat-loving animal. If it had been summer, it would have survived.
The snake was taken to Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, where it will serve as a teaching aid for veterinary students. – It is incomprehensible to me, but people often abandon exotic animals, Klasa continues. – I recently heard that an angler caught a turtle at a gravel pit. Red-eared sliders, meanwhile, have settled in the moat around Wrocław. I will not be surprised if someone tells me that caimans are swimming in the Krępnica.
According to the veterinarian, the problem is that some people treat animals as a temporary whim. – They buy a pet that is 20–30 cm long. And when it grows, a problem arises. They do not know what to do with it, explains Piotr Klasa. – After all, they can leave it at a pet shop or take it to an animal shelter.
Under the Animal Protection Act, abandoning a pet is equivalent to animal abuse and constitutes a crime. The reptile’s owner may face up to one year in prison.
(information ii)