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Burmese python too big for B.C. put on one-way flight to Toronto

Snake will be going to his forever home at a reptile zoo just north of the city

A Burmese python was put on a one-way-flight from Vancouver to Toronto Tuesday morning en route to his new forever home.

Mombo, a 4.5-metre, 34-kilogram snake was found by Richmond RCMP last fall and picked up by Dr. Adrian Walton at the Dewdney Animal Hospital in Maple Ridge.

Other than an upper respiratory ailment that staff at the veterinarian clinic were treating him for by pumping antibiotics into a box through steam, Mombo was in good condition.

Walton had to find a facility large enough to house the snake and decided on Reptilia Zoo in Vaughan, Ont., about 50 kilometres north of downtown Toronto.

“We’ve been to their facility and we know they know how to take care of these animals,” said Dr. Walton, who had to get up at 4 a.m. Tuesday to take Mombo to the airport.

Mombo was to take a WestJet flight in a locked and heated Rubbermaid container with holes in it for air.

“It’s completely sealed and completely secure,” said Walton.

“You’re not going to have a Snakes On A Plane episode,” Walton added, making a reference to the 2006 action thriller starring Samuel Jackson.



mailto:cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com

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Colleen Flanagan

About the Author: Colleen Flanagan

I got my start with Black Press Media in 2003 as a photojournalist.
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