PEOPLE in Schull are being asked to keep their eyes peeled for a 4ft corn or rat snake after a shedded skin was found on a footpath at Ardmanagh.
Tory Joyce, a primary fundraiser with the West Cork Animal Welfare Group, confirmed that the skin, found in the village on Tuesday, is authentic.
How it got there, she surmised, could be down to a practical joke, the escape or release of an exotic pet, or the accidental loss of the shedded skin.
She said the person who found it, on their way home from work, believes it might have even been longer because it might have shrunk in Tuesday’s blazing sunshine.
‘This is a first for us,’ said Tory, who would have concerns if there is indeed a snake on the loose.
‘They don’t survive in the cold weather outside. Even in this weather,’ she said, ‘they would struggle. If it is on the loose, it would, ideally, need to be captured and put in a suitable environment.’
Tory said she has heard of lots of incidents where corn or rat snakes have been dumped in the wild because they get too big for their owners to maintain.
The animal welfare worker appealed to people to ‘think again’ when considering purchasing exotic animals as pets.
