Latest news with #exoticpets
Daily Mail
31-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Moment panicked mother makes horrifying discovery in her child's room
A mother was left horrified after she discovered a hissing seven-foot snake lurking in her child's bedroom while her daughter played next to it. Natasha Robinson from Cheshire, thought her fiancé Gary Minshull, 40, was playing a prank on her when, on June 15, he told her that he'd found a snake in their son's bedroom. The 34-year-old went upstairs and saw what she thought was a toy, but her jaw dropped when she spotted the serpent's tongue suddenly flick in and out. The shocked wedding accessories business owner ushered her three-year-old Primrose, who had been playing while blissfully unaware of the exotic intruder, out of the room and closed the door. Natasha then took Primrose, along with her sons Jacob, seven, and Theo, six, into the garden to check on the family's cats, which she feared might have been eaten. She frantically tried to identify the black and yellow snake on Google before contacting local pet shops, but her efforts were to no avail. Natasha and her husband, a health, safety and quality manager, then resorted to social media, and shared a post on Facebook pleading for help. A couple who lives locally to Natasha and own exotic pets reached out to her and said they'd claim the snake. The mother-of-three cornered the serpent for two hours while she waited for them to arrive. The snake was later identified as a Taiwanese Beauty Rat Snake, a non-venomous constrictor snake that's legal to keep without a licence in Britain. They're typically six to 10 feet in length and usually docile, but if they perceive a threat they can bite without warning. Natasha said: 'My partner called me from upstairs in a panic, saying 'Come upstairs there is a snake in the boys' room'. 'Me and my son both thought he was talking rubbish and that he wanted to pull a prank on us. 'Even in the split second when I first saw it, I still thought that he'd bought a toy snake off Temu. But then I saw it moving and its tongue coming out. 'To begin with, I thought "It's got to just be a grass snake" or something else not so dangerous but it didn't look anything like the pictures - and it was so big.' From the size and appearance of the snake, the couple inferred that it definitely wasn't native. 'Then we put it on Facebook pages and other people were commenting saying that it was an exotic snake of some form,' Natasha added. Natasha said: 'My partner and I were just in disbelief really - especially knowing it had been in there with our daughter. 'I'm just so grateful it was spotted and that she didn't accidentally tread on it. One of my sons is autistic, he would've grabbed it. I dread to think what could've happened then.' After making sure the children and their two cats were safe, Natasha started ringing around for help, but because they found the snake on a Sunday, many shops were shut. Her Facebook plea was heard by a couple who own exotic pets, and luckily, they staged a rescue on the 'grumpy, hissing' critter. Natasha said: 'We tried local pet shops but they were closed. A few people on local [Facebook] pages suggested we try and catch it in a pillowcase. 'I thought, "Are you serious? I'm not doing that". It probably wouldn't have fit in a pillowcase anyway. 'Luckily, we had a message from a couple a few roads away who keep exotic pets who said they would come and get it if nobody else was helping. 'When the lady came to get it, it had hidden away behind a storage unit. She grabbed its head and then had to quickly get to the end of the tail because she said it would restrict you if it got the chance. The woman told Natasha and Gary that the snake was hissing because it was being caught. 'It definitely wasn't very happy in this container that she had to transport it in,' Natasha said. The mother-of-three believes that the slippery visitor may have got in through an open window. Though the snake is now safely fostered with the couple who rescued it, Natasha admitted that for a few days, she frantically checked where she stood in case another one got in too. Natasha said: 'We think it came in through the open upstairs window of the bedroom, but we'll never know. 'I didn't know how long it had been in the house, or whether there were more. I don't think I could've slept with it in the house - even if it was shut behind a closed door. 'We had new mattresses delivered in the boys' room where it appeared, and I was thinking, "Has it come out of that mattress? Is there a nest of them in there?" She added: 'After they took the snake away, I took all the beds off and I searched everywhere.' 'Then for days I was checking where I trod and lifting the pillows and duvets before getting into bed. 'Luckily that fear did go. We're still really baffled about where it came from and we get asked about it to this day, because no owner ever came forward. 'The children weren't frightened of it, they thought it was really cool having a snake in their bedroom. 'It was totally bizarre. You'd think if it was a loved pet it would've been claimed,' she said, adding, 'We have been like celebrities around here ever since, I'm asked about it constantly.' They're typically six to ten feet in length, and usually docile - but if they perceive a threat they can bite without warning, often triggered by quick movement.
ABC News
11-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Pakistan cracks down on illegal lion ownership after escaped pet mauls woman and two kids
Pakistani authorities say they have confiscated 18 lions kept illegally as pets in Punjab province following a public outcry after an escaped pet lion mauled a woman and two children on a street in Lahore. The woman suffered scratches and bruises in the attack last week, while two children aged five and seven were hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries. The owner of the lion was arrested. Experts say it is a mammoth task to stifle exotic big cat ownership in Pakistan, which has proliferated over the past decade thanks in part to social media. Punjab's Wildlife and Parks Department says there are 584 lions and tigers in homes and breeding farms across the province. Hira Jaleel, a visiting assistant professor at the United States Centre for Animal Law Studies, has worked on animal-related legal issues in Pakistan. Ms Jaleel said illegal wildlife ownership was prolific. She said many of the big cats were kept in unsavoury conditions. "It obviously leads to really poor welfare for these animals, especially when they're being kept in people's backyards, being declawed, perpetually sedated and used as photo ops," she said. The painful process of declawing — amputating the last digital bone in cubs — is associated with increased biting and aggression but is often undertaken to make pet animals more "harmless". Even so, because of their large size, lions are sometimes kept drugged to keep them placid. Some say keeping exotic animals as pets is a trend fuelled by social media — but it has historic roots. A tiger is the election symbol for one of the three major political parties in Pakistan, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN), whose founder — Nawaz Sharif — has served as Pakistan's prime minister for three terms, and the animals are often seen at political rallies. "People were bringing tigers and lions to political rallies and it became a way of showing solidarity with the ruling party or your political affiliation," Ms Jaleel said. Big cats have also become social media fodder in recent decades, with owners flaunting the pets as a symbol of luxury and wealth. Some are used as props for wedding photos, and cubs are sometimes given as gifts. In March 2022, a video showing a TikTok celebrity being swiped at by a colleague's pet lion, which had to be restrained, went viral. WWF Pakistan senior director of conservation Rab Nawaz said influencers played an important role in the conversation around big cat ownership in Pakistan. "That's half the battle, to make the public understand what goes on in the background, how the animals are kept," he said. "If the public is behind us or behind the department, it will be very easy to stop. "Because people will not be buying those animals if they realise the suffering they go through and the danger they pose to the public at large." In January a Pakistani YouTuber with 5 million subscribers was ordered to create 12 animal welfare videos as punishment for illegally owning a lion cub. "It was a novel way of actually punishing him. And I think perhaps it did work," Mr Nawaz said. New regulations introduced this year stipulate individuals can keep a pet lion if they pay a fee to obtain a licence and adhere to the required cage size. The punishment for keeping a lion without a licence is up to seven years in jail. In recent days, the Punjab government has also said it will enforce the sterilisation of lions, tigers and leopards kept in private possession. But Ms Jaleel said enforcement was difficult and a patchwork of provincial laws that allowed exotic pet ownership to various extents had hindered any attempts to regulate lion ownership in the past. "There is just this loophole where the wildlife department is best positioned to exercise authority over these animals but actually doesn't really have authority under the law to do so," she said. Rehoming confiscated lions also poses a significant challenge because African lions are not indigenous to the Indian subcontinent and cannot be released into the wild. Lions are sent to safari parks and zoos, which have seen an influx of big cats in recent years, many confiscated from private owners. Ms Jaleel said it was a problem that Pakistan could no longer ignore. "The proliferation of big cats in the country has become a problem that is just out of control at this point. The wildlife department knows it, the federal government knows it, people know it," she said. "So really, the question is: How many more lions and people have to suffer before something's actually done about it?"
CTV News
07-07-2025
- CTV News
Lion owners arrested after an attack on woman and her 2 children in Pakistan
A 4-year-old lion named Simba, who was rescued from Syria by the animal rights group Four Paws, is released into an enclosure at the Lionsrock Lodge and Big Cat Sanctuary in Bethlehem, South Africa, Monday, Feb. 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) LAHORE — The owners of a pet lion that escaped from a farmhouse and injured a woman and her two children have been arrested in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, authorities said Sunday. The arrest comes after dramatic video footage surfaced showing the lion leaping over a wall before attacking the victims in a residential area. The woman and her 5- and 7-year-old children sustained injuries to their faces and arms on Wednesday night when the lion escaped from its cage, police official Faisal Kamran said. According to a police report, the children's father told police that the lion's owners stood by and watched as the animal clawed at his family, making no effort to restrain it. The lion later returned to the owners' farmhouse and was relocated to a wildlife park, police said. Keeping exotic animals such as lions is considered a status symbol among some wealthy Pakistanis, despite the legal requirements and high fees associated with ownership. The Associated Press
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Yahoo
Lion owners arrested after an attack on woman and her 2 children in Pakistan
LAHORE (AP) — The owners of a pet lion that escaped from a farmhouse and injured a woman and her two children have been arrested in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, authorities said Sunday. The arrest comes after dramatic video footage surfaced showing the lion leaping over a wall before attacking the victims in a residential area. The woman and her 5- and 7-year-old children sustained injuries to their faces and arms on Wednesday night when the lion escaped from its cage, police official Faisal Kamran said. According to a police report, the children's father told police that the lion's owners stood by and watched as the animal clawed at his family, making no effort to restrain it. The lion later returned to the owners' farmhouse and was relocated to a wildlife park, police said. Keeping exotic animals such as lions is considered a status symbol among some wealthy Pakistanis, despite the legal requirements and high fees associated with ownership.
Associated Press
06-07-2025
- Associated Press
Lion owners arrested after an attack on woman and her 2 children in Pakistan
LAHORE (AP) — The owners of a pet lion that escaped from a farmhouse and injured a woman and her two children have been arrested in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, authorities said Sunday. The arrest comes after dramatic video footage surfaced showing the lion leaping over a wall before attacking the victims in a residential area. The woman and her 5- and 7-year-old children sustained injuries to their faces and arms on Wednesday night when the lion escaped from its cage, police official Faisal Kamran said. According to a police report, the children's father told police that the lion's owners stood by and watched as the animal clawed at his family, making no effort to restrain it. The lion later returned to the owners' farmhouse and was relocated to a wildlife park, police said. Keeping exotic animals such as lions is considered a status symbol among some wealthy Pakistanis, despite the legal requirements and high fees associated with ownership.
