I am Cam's mate that worked with him to bring these snakes some justice and dignity, its been quite an unsettling ride and has really opened my eyes to how little respect some people can have for animals, and also the inadequacies of the system set up to protect animals from people like this...
With all due respect RSPCA, though I have been contacted by phone by the Chief Inspector who has allayed my concerns somewhat, your response here seems more like a bit of PR image control than an actual resonse to the situation at hand. To clarify your comment "The RSPCA was notified of this matter and duely followed current protocols with the Queensland State Government and immediately sent the details of the incident to Qld Parks and Wildlife for investigation.", in fact this only occured after I sent an email with a link to this thread to your organisation on Tuesday August 2nd. Our initial contact with the RSPCA consisted a bored and unhelpful woman at the Townsville shelter telling me it was nothing to do with the RSPCA and to contact QPWS/DERM. This is after I explained to her that I had spent 30 minutes online trying to find an appropriate number or contact at DERM to call and had to insist repeatedly that she find me a number for me to call. After 5 minutes of being on hold she gave me a number, which was not even connected when I tried to call it! The woman did not take down ANY details about the incident, so there is NO WAY it could have been reported at that stage... I do understand now that there is a memorandum of understanding between QPWS and RSPCA and that wildlife queries should be dealt with by QPWS/DERM but the initial response from the Towsnville branch has left a bad taste in my mouth...
As for QPWS/DERM.....I dont have anything positive to say about my experience in dealing with them over this matter. The two officers who took our statements seemed initially to be very motivated and concerned and gave us the impression that they would be acting with haste, but whether through bureaucratic BS or too large a workload the momentum seemed to drop as soon as we walked out the door. Despite me calling them at least every week to see if there had been any action to care for the snakes, it wasnt until I sent a very blunt email to them on the 25th of July threatening to go to the minister and the media if action wasnt taken did they act at all, and even then only to enter the premises with the police and take photos... No animals were seized, no animals were fed or received veterinary care, just photos...then they shut the door and left...
The supervisor of the 2 DERM officers who dealt with this initially contacted me after this and basically gave me every justification as to why they couldnt act, stating that they had insufficient evidence (despite 2 lengthy statements and a USB stick full of more photos like those posted here), the Hendra virus outbreak (not even in FNQ!!), they couldnt identify the owner or the premises (despite the statements giving the address and name of the person, and confirmation that the bloke at the centre of this was a licensed reptile keeper), that the RSPCA should have dealt with it (see above), etc etc etc. He also said that the conditions of the snakes was 'not that bad', obviously not since Cam and I had spent over a week cleaning most of the enclosures and feeding some of the smaller more emaciated snakes. Had we not done this the scene that would have greeted DERM on their eventual arrival would have been nothing short of a horror show!!
To my knowledge the keeper hasnt yet returned from holidays, the snakes are still mostly unfed apart from the ones that Cam and I fed, and some of the larger ones are still living in their own filth and stench as was requested by officers so they could see the condition first hand... Thats 7 weeks that they would have been unattended for if not for the intervention of Cameron and I, and it had been much much longer since they were properly fed and had their enclosures cleaned. I have emailed the office of Vicky Darling, the minister for DERM about this matter along with a link to this thread. We will see if that makes any difference...
On the upside to all this I have now developed a lot more knowledge about reptile keeping and am considering getting a snake at the start of next year. They are fascinating and beautiful creatures and until this incident I had not had the opportunity to be close to or hold a snake and have gone from being a bit apprehensive about them to now thinking that they are amazing creatures that deserve a lot more respect.
As for the bloke who caused all of this.....lower than a snakes belly....
Sean
