Terrified woman thought draught excluder was five-foot long snake

A terrified resident called an animal rescue charity when she found a five foot snake in her loft, but the reptile was a draught excluder left by previous tenants. The woman called the Scottish SPCA to her home in the Kingswells area of Aberdeen on Monday after finding the unwelcome visitor.

When the officer, Karen Hogg, arrived with her specialist equipment she found a large green and black snake-shaped excluder with a red felt tongue. Staff have now nicknamed it Sid and it has taken up residence at the Aberdeen Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centre.



Officer Hogg said: "We've rescued hundreds of snakes from properties in all sorts of unusual circumstances, so we had no reason to believe this might not be the real thing. I'd brought gloves and a pillow case to enable us to handle and contain the snake safely, but as soon as we spotted it we realised the equipment wouldn't be necessary.

"The poor lady was still very shaken, even after we'd removed the stuffed animal from the property. This callout really made us smile and given that we deal with cruelty and neglect day in day out, it was refreshing to go to a job where the 'animal' was completely unharmed. Sid is now a permanent resident at our rehoming centre where we are sure he will keep our office nice and cosy."