OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian kittens are in mortal danger from pet snakes for whom a rat just doesn't seem filling enough.
A reptile expert said on Wednesday that cat owners, who hoped kittens they had to give away would go to a good home, were outraged to find that some were ending up as dinner for pythons and other snakes kept illegally as pets.
"Some people get a kick out of seeing a kitten being eaten alive by a snake," biologist Kees Ekeli, director of the Bergen Aquarium in western Norway, told Reuters. "It's cheap and it's a good size for a medium-sized snake."
"It's heart-breaking for the people who have feelings for their kittens."
Sometimes, advertisements offering kittens in local papers stipulate: "Not for snake food."
It is illegal in Norway to keep snakes as pets and to use live animals as feed. A nine-foot-long snake usually eats a big rat about every three days.
http://news.excite.com/odd/article/id/345457|oddlyenough|08-06-2003::11:06|reuters.html
A reptile expert said on Wednesday that cat owners, who hoped kittens they had to give away would go to a good home, were outraged to find that some were ending up as dinner for pythons and other snakes kept illegally as pets.
"Some people get a kick out of seeing a kitten being eaten alive by a snake," biologist Kees Ekeli, director of the Bergen Aquarium in western Norway, told Reuters. "It's cheap and it's a good size for a medium-sized snake."
"It's heart-breaking for the people who have feelings for their kittens."
Sometimes, advertisements offering kittens in local papers stipulate: "Not for snake food."
It is illegal in Norway to keep snakes as pets and to use live animals as feed. A nine-foot-long snake usually eats a big rat about every three days.
http://news.excite.com/odd/article/id/345457|oddlyenough|08-06-2003::11:06|reuters.html