Man Charged After 20 Burmese Pythons Found Roaming Around His House

A snake lover from the USA has been caught allowing 20 Burmese pythons to live freely around his home. What's more, he also had literally hundreds of rodents on the premises too.

It's not clear whether or not the '585 rats and about 46 rabbits' were intended to be food for the huge snakes.

Martin 'Marty' Bone, 64, faces 20 charges relating to the keeping of exotic animals and pets after police came into his home in Holladay, Utah.

Ten of the snakes police found when they came around on Friday (9 October) were longer than 10 feet, but some were smaller.

At that point, your splitting hairs, right?

Detective Ken Hansen told local TV channel ABC4: "One of the issues that came to our attention is just the amount of debris coming from the animals made the area kind of have an interesting smell to it."

Some of the animals were in enclosures, while most of the snakes were just slithering unchecked around the property.

No wonder there was a lot of 'debris'.

Hansen confirmed that all of the animals were then taken to be examined by veterinarians.

He explained: "We had animal control there and we had a veterinarian there.

"So every animal that was taken from there had an examination including the snakes, rats and the rabbits."

For his part, Bone said he'd recently sold a young Burmese python to an undercover police officer who had been in touch with him over Facebook.

He also claimed the animals were covered by a permit, although police claim he hasn't applied for or obtained one since 2017.

Bone contested: "I was first notified in 2014 that I needed to comply with these permits, but in 2017 I never received a notice after that and thought my permits were up to date."

It has been reported that the police also found two containers full of opiates, as well as a gun and $2,000 (£1,500), but Hansen was quick to clear up that the main problem was because of the animals.

He added: "He's arrested for selling exotic animals.

"It's going to go on to some drug charges, and some other issues, but I think the initial part of this was selling the Burmese Pythons."

In the end, he's been charged with 20 counts of owning exotic animals without a permit, two counts of possessing a controlled substance and one count of possession of a firearm by a restricted person. He has been released on a bail bond.

Featured Image Credit: Facebook

Topics: US News, Weird, Animals

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

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