Flaviemys purvisi
Very Well-Known Member
JANUARY 12 2019
Danielle Cetinski
COVERING COSTS: Jake Hansen with a snake at Lyndhurst.
A SUGGESTION to make Orange City Council the go-to organisation to relocate snakes has received support from the mayor.
It comes after Victorian snake catcher Gianni Hodgson started a petition on Change.org calling on councils to provide a snake removal program.
Adopting the program would mean the council would connect residents with a snake catcher at no charge to the resident, which has been introduced by other councils.
Mayor Reg Kidd said he would be willing to raise the idea with the council’s companion animals committee and agreed it would provide an easy single phone number for all domestic pet and wildlife issues.
“It doesn’t happen all that often, I don’t think it would be a huge cost,” he said.
Jake Hansen is one of two licensed snake catchers in the Central West and said he already had a good relationship with the council, most recently having been paid to remove a snake from a vase of flowers on a baby’s grave at the cemetery.
He said his catches stood at about 70 for the summer so far, charging $60 in the middle of Orange and more in outlying areas to cover fuel costs.
“You have to have public liability insurance, which is really expensive, and your first aid certificate, on top of petrol,” he said.
