The missing, seven-foot-long boa constrictor the Starkville Police Department has been searching for since March 18 is not the first of its kind they’ve had to track down, only the first reported, according to SPD officials.
The department announced Wednesday they’d been searching for the red-tailed boa that went missing from a home in the 500 block of West Garrard Road.
“This owner diligently looked, and then was responsible enough to call in,” SPD Sgt. Andy Fultz, who leads the special operations group of which animal control is a part, said.
Fultz said animal control has had to track down other boas in his 30 years with SPD, but this is the first time owners reported the animal missing.
No permit is needed to have a boa constrictor in Starkville.
Fultz declined to comment on whether there would be repercussions for the owner if the snake harmed anyone or anything.
The Dispatch attempted to speak with the snake’s owners at their West Garrard Road home about noon Thursday, but was told to leave by a woman who answered the door.
Fultz said the department issue Wednesday’s press release following calls of concern from neighbors after animal control contacted some of them searching for the snake.
“That’s what prompted us to discuss it, to try to dispel the rumours, myths, stories being told,” he said.
While the press release reminds residents to keep watch over their small animals and remind children to stay away from all snakes — Fultz said, after educating himself on the animal, which dwells mostly in topical regions and eats small birds and rodents, he sees no real threat posed by it.
“It is not going to come after (residents), it’s a species that’s not trying to do anything,” he said, adding that experts say temperatures below 50 degrees can cause death in such snakes and that there have been 18-such days in the time since the snake went missing. “I’m sure, if it still is alive, it is very close to the residence.”
Miriam Britt , an Oktibbeha County Humane Society animal attendent, said she resides near the residence of the snake, and fears for her Chihuahua and grandkids. Britt said she likely will shoot the snake with a BB gun if she sees it.
“I’m not happy about that snake being loose,” she said, adding she planned to look into exactly how far the home is from her.
The shelter has not had any calls regarding the snake and has never received such an exotic animal, according to general manager Christy Crenshaw.
“We really don’t get any exotic pets — the most we get are small rodents,” she said, adding they recently received three ferrets.
The search for the snake is ongoing.
A man, who declined to give his name, mowing his grass a few residences from the snake’s residence, was surprised when the Dispatch told him of the snake’s disappearance.
However, he said he was not all that worried.
“If we get another cold snap, it won’t last anyway,” he said.
Calls regarding the snake should be made to animal control at 662-769-2728, or for after-hours calls, to the police at 662-323-4131.
Sam Luvisi is news editor and covers education for The Dispatch.
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