Royal python rescued from country roadside

A royal python has been rescued after it was found in a woodland area.

Cumbria Police received a report of the 4ft (1.2m) snake curled up beside Leighton Beck Road, Slack Head, at about 21:00 BST on Thursday.

Officers and Mandy Christopher from Little Beasties, a pet shop and animal rescue service, helped rescue of the snake, which could have been abandoned or escaped from a premises.

Christopher said she would allow a fortnight for the python to be claimed and then would put it up for adoption to "find it a good home".

Christopher said that royal pythons were "really docile and friendly snakes" so it "wouldn't just attack anybody as they walked past".

She added that if it was abandoned, there could be a few factors leading to it, with one being that sometimes "people are not given the right information whether a snake is right for them".

"If somebody comes to us looking to get a snake, they need to have come in a few times, filled out a care sheet, and have had to spend quite a bit of time thinking about it," Christopher added.

"Unfortunately, not everywhere is like that so you can walk in and walk out with the snake in the same day."

She said that some people buy the reptiles from "pre-loved websites or their mates advertise a snake for sale".

"Again they've not really done the research and looked into how big it's going to get, how much care it needs, that type of thing," she added.

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