Emily, Kate and 4 sweet little girls came to meet the snakes for encounters. Our first visit since summer 2020 .
Wonderful to have such sweet visitors, first of 2021 looking forward to more, the snakes enjoyed their handlers too, they love to escape from their vivariums for a while.
Speaker for club meets: I have enjoyed speaking about my life experiences as a dancer, entertainer and herpetologist.
For most people in the audience I have had an unusual career in which, as a self employed person I have needed to re-invent my work style, so they find it interesting and I like to speak with a bit of humour added.
I have two different speaker styles to offer:
The problem is at these gigs I am so busy entertaining that I forget to take photos.
I have included some photos here of gigs past and present.
North Essex Photographic Workshop booked the snakes for one of their meetings.
Some of their brilliant photos are here: nepw.uk
Sue on the other hand took photos of the photographers taking photos 🙂
Of course she couldn’t resist taking a few of the snakes too.
Here we have:
Tango – Corn Snake,
Gino – Brazilian -Rainbow Boa,
Beni – Royal Python,
Wills – Corn Snake
Bobo – Boa Constrictor
Snake rescue – It is with a sad and heavy heart we will not be taking in any new rescues.
For some time now many of the rescue snakes that Sue has rehomed have ended up back in the sanctuary, people just really are not prepared to keep them for the whole of their lives.
Snakes can live up to 30 yrs please think before purchasing or re-homing one.
Sue has been rescuing snakes for 20 yrs now and there comes a point when age creeps up (some of the snakes may outlive her!) also energy and finance are at a low level.
People are welcome to send a photo and information about their snake/s by email and Sue will put the it onto this website for anyone who may be interested. A donation to the sanctuary is appreciated for this service.
Sue has 55 snakes at present to care for, some are not likely to be chosen for re-homing and will live forever with Sue.
Although Sue still has some work it is not comparable to the amount she had before 2008 – work means meeting lots more people who may wish to re-home, creates the finance to keep the sanctuary running and educates people.
So many people know so little about snakes or reptiles in general; yes it’s exciting to see mobile zoos but how much can you learn about any one animal and many being mammals like ourselves. For 20 years Sue has been asked the same questions about the snakes she takes out:
Sue loves the educational work that she does but it seems more and more that adults don’t actually want to be educated, they would rather live in fear which in turn prevents the education of children as the adults hold the purse strings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_skeleton
If you shop online, can you please help raise money for Herpetological Educational Rescue Project. You buy the same things at the same price, and the only cost is to the retailer. To get started just visit https://www.goraise.co.uk/HERP
Public appearances for July and August are:
Looking forward educating and phobia busting lots more adults and teaching children about snakes.
Music in the Park – Wanstead 2015
We have been attending this event for approx 7yrs, this year there was a strong police presence taking charge of the snakes 😀
Our latest fundraiser is selling shed snakeskins; we bag up and label the type of snake they’re from. Some of the larger skins are ironed out flat for hanging up on the wall.
The first photo is of my latest crew of volunteers holding Rosie and Bou.
Transporting snakes for events require the snakes to be carried around somehow, many people wonder how we transport the snakes.
The snakes are usually each placed into a separate pillow case which is tied at the top in a special snake proof way so that there are no escapes and the bags are placed into baskets, larger snakes at the bottom, smaller, lighter snakes on the top. If the weather is cold then warm, covered water bottles are placed inside the baskets, this means its useful if we can get a supply of warm water at the venue to top the bottles up.
This is mainly fine with the snakes as they love to hide in dark places and the pillowcases are good, some people ask me if they can breath inside, I think we have forgotten the difference between plastic and woven fabric, try putting your t shirt over your head but not a plastic bag!!
The larger snakes have had specially large bags sewn for them by Sue.
We have to be careful with each snake as there are a very few who are not so happy in a bag and wish for a little more freedom, in that case I have a secure basket that they can be inside without the need for a bag, they have a little blanket instead so that they can hide if the want to.
If they are not happy in a particular container sometimes they rub their noses until they bleed so we must be ultra careful that they are happy and comfortable.
Over the years Sue has acquired a few different baskets to transport the snakes and some are very attractive and the snakes actually like them, especially the large pythons and Boas.
The first basket I saw in John Lewis many years ago and it has always been my snake dancing basket.
The second picture is of a couple of baskets I found in an antique shop nearby, the pythons really love a round basket and you can see Rosie is very comfy in the bottom.
In the last picture is of us running an educational presentation at school you can see the baskets on the table in the background these are old fashioned pet carriers before plastic ones became the rage and these are very suitable for the smaller snakes in their pillowcases.
Sue’s car has climate control so that we can keep the car warm or cool according to the needs of the snakes and the weather.
Occasionally the snakes have needed to be carried on the train, this does mean not so many snakes can be transported and for this situation they are placed in a rucksack with a water bottle if necessary and can also pick up warmth from the human body when the bag is on your back or sitting on your lap.
I never transport snakes in clear boxes this would stress them out too much as they can see out and feel vulnerable.
Boa constrictor rescued:
We took in another Boa Constrictor on Sunday 14th Dec 14, her name is Porsha she is 4yrs old. These cases are very sad, her carer needed to move house and the rules were that as pets go she could keep a cat and when the surveyor visited and saw the Boa in her vivarium he reported it and she had to find another home for it. When she rang the RSPCA they told her to sell it online, but she wanted to know where Porsha was going to land up. She called zoos and various pet shops and was eventually given my number. to make space for her I needed to call up my volunteers to move many of our resident snakes into slightly smaller accommodation.
I love cats too and have always had one, two or three living with me but we all know that cats can be more of a problem pet than a boa constrictor in a vivarium. It looks as if Common Sense has lost its way. Also its fine to have children and we also know what a problem they can be, especially the older they become!!
As soon as I took Porsha out of her carrier she shot over to her Mum (carer) after her carer left she was so upset we had a job picking her up without welding gloves, snake hook, towel to cover her face so that we could move her into the vivarium we had set up for her.
Snakes and Boa constrictors (in particular) are extremely sensitive they do know their carer and will get upset and frightened when moved to a different place.
I moved one of her hides and she was pushing her body up the back of the viv, so afraid.
I posted this today on the 19th Dec and she had found her bath and was having a soak, I really hope she grows to trust us in time.
Snakes at School: Spent a day at Gayhurst Community School, Hackney E8 on Friday 7th Feb – we usually visit the nursery classes but we visited the older children this time, 6 classes throughout the day, the children were all remembering when we saw them at nursery and they remembered lots of the snakes names 🙂 Luckily they really appreciate us there and have booked us every year for about 6yrs, its quite exhausting now that I don’t live in London as I have to leave home at 6am to get there at 9am (traffic) finished at 4.30pm, which means traveling back in the busy traffic to get home. But very rewarding as usual.
It’s really great to get some positive feedback too.
P.S. Have to add that the adults really enjoyed holding the snakes at the Science Fair after school, too 🙂
Dear Sue,
Thank you for all your hard work on Friday. Thank you also for staying for the Science fair. The children really enjoyed handling the snakes. The snakes were one of the higlights of our science week.
Thank you so much,
Mahmouda