Snakes alive – that’s the way Fanie wants it

– Snakes and mankind often do not mix well, but in KwaZulu-Natal’s Ladysmith area, a 4.3m-long rock python had a lucky break yesterday after eating a local resident’s goat.

Instead of being hacked to death, the owner of the goat alerted the police, who called Ladysmith’s very own snake catcher, Fanie Cilliers, to come and remove the troublesome reptile.

The owner of the goat, identified as a Mr Nzimande, told Cilliers that he had already lost two chickens to pythons that morning.

“Mr Nzimande claimed that this was the third python for the day and when the python took one of his goats, he had had enough. He claims that the previous two pythons each ate a chicken from his livestock,” said Cilliers.

Cilliers said when he arrived at Nzimande’s yard, the python was still giving the goat the squeeze of death.

“I grabbed this beautiful female African Rock Python and pulled her from the cliff’s edge where I could work with her safely. I then bagged her and started the long walk back to the car.”

Cilliers said the python would be released into a nearby game park.

Police had alerted Cilliers to the python after Nzimande had reported it to them.

But the python that ate Nzimande’s goat was not the first of the day. Earlier, Cilliers had removed a 2.75-metre snake from the Estageni area.

Cilliers said that when he had moved to Ladysmith he noticed numerous reports in the town’s local newspapers of snakes being killed – something that he did not like to see happening.

So he introduced himself to the local council as the Ladysmith Snake Removal Team – consisting of himself, his wife Melissa, his daughter Mishkè and son Sean. – ANA