Tenants ordered to vacate rooming house due to loose cobra

Until he came face to face with the cobra, Willy Ruppenstein didn't believe the reptile he'd heard crawling through the ceiling was anything to worry about.

But the burly resident of a west-end rooming house was shocked nearly two weeks ago to find a 1.5-metre snake hissing and darting its spiked tongue in his direction.

"I walked into the kitchen, moved the fridge and there she was — behind the fridge," Ruppenstein said. "I took a step forward. Then she spread out and I took a step back."

He immediately dialled his landlord, who called Toronto Animal Services. Since that harried moment, when police, fire and other emergency personnel rushed to the scene, a team of five professionals has been working to capture the scaly fugitive.

The brown and green snake has made its home inside the walls of 16 Church St., a semi-detached house near Weston Rd. and Lawrence Ave. W.

Plastered onto both front doors of the building is a sign, posted by Toronto Public Health, advising occupants they are prohibited from living there.

"It's an inconvenience," said Robert Gardner, one of the residents, who peers nervously into the house for any sign of the snake before scurrying inside for a moment to grab some of his belongings.

He, like the other five residents, has been stealing sleep wherever their landlord can find them a bed until everyone is permitted to return to their shared dwelling.

The reptile belonged to a family that lived in the adjoining home, police say, adding a municipal bylaw prohibits anyone from keeping such a venomous animal.

Bob Johnson, curator of reptiles at the Toronto Zoo, says catching the snake has become a waiting game.

"We can find it quickly by tearing down walls," he said, noting that would also destroy the house and so far has not been an option. "We're hoping the snake will come to us."

The venomous reptile, Johnson explains, poses a health and safety risk because if it becomes frightened it will bite. Its poison could potentially kill a human in hours. "They want to be left alone and they don't want to waste precious resources on something they can't eat," Johnson said, noting the zoo, which normally stores anti-venom, has given half its stock to animal services, in case the serum is needed in a hurry.

Philip Belanger, landlord of the rooming house, is taking this experience in stride.

He's had to release mice into the home as a snack for the snake, and his basement's been booby-trapped.

Officials have created an elaborate scheme to coax the reptile toward a heat lamp — cobras like to nestle against lights, says Johnson.

Link

hmmm - help me out here...I know that the colors used to describe snakes are not always the most accurate, but what cobra would be described as brown and green (and wouldn't it be nice to hear later, after it is captured, that it is not a cobra, after all?...though, since they know who it belonged to, I would imagine they confirmed the identification)
On another note, it was good to see that they did not characterize the snake as some evil creature intent on taking human lives...lurking in shadows, just waiting for an unsuspecting resident to pass within range.
But about the concept of releasing mice into the building to serve as snacks - kind of silly, if they want to lure the snake out so it can be caught. Putting a cage with some mice in the place, sure, if the house is warm enough for the snake to feed. Or maybe they could go hi-tech, and implant a radio transmitter in a mouse before releasing it (of course, this only works if the snake eats it)

I wonder if they plan to prosecute the owner of the snake. Even if they opt not to pursue criminal charges, the landlord should go after him for the expenses he is incurring (housing his tenants elsewhere, and anything else that gets added in the course of capture)

Take note people that this incident occurred in Toronto, which apparently has a little more sense than many cities is the US when it comes to describing the snake, not as a dangerous animal that seeks out humans to bite them, as would probably have been published here in the US, it would seem that Canada has a little more sense when it comes to dangerous animals than most cities in the US have. And for that matter, most people here in the US.

Why aren't the previous owners the ones going to the trouble (and risk) of recapturing the snake and the expense of housing the current tenants? They are the ones at fault...sounds like they just abandoned a dangerous animal which was their responsibility. Good of the reporters to keep to the facts and not try to terrorize the public, but still, any time anything like this happens it makes the rest of us look bad. Disgusting, really, if you ask me (which nobody did, fortunately, LOL).

Updates on this story have been slow in coming, but apparently the cobra is still loose in the house. So far Toronto Animal Services and spent over $13,000 trying to catch it.
The snake's owner has been found and charged, here's that story.


Cobra owner pleads guilty

Man whose snake spurred evacuation of tenants also kept one in his locker at work, court told

A Toronto man whose giant, loose cobra forced the evacuation of a rooming house also kept a huge viper in his living room and a third venomous snake in his locker at work.

Helder Claro pleaded guilty to mischief and creating a common nuisance yesterday as more details of his curious hobby were revealed in a North York courtroom.

The man in his 30s rented a semi-detached house at 18 Church St., near Weston Rd. and Lawrence Ave. W., when his Egyptian Cobra got loose and moved through the ceiling into the other half of the semi, terrorizing tenants last September.

The Egyptian Cobra is extremely aggressive when cornered, Toronto Zoo reptile expert Bob Johnson told provincial court.

Before he was arrested, Claro was a trainee baker at Nova Era Bakery. His replacement, when cleaning out Claro's locker, found a Tupperware container that contained another Egyptian Cobra, Crown prosecutor Frank Schembri told court.

When the female cobra was captured and brought to the zoo, Johnson said, it lashed out repeatedly, leaving droplets of venom.

The uproar began last September when a tenant at the rooming house saw a 2-metre snake in the kitchen, Schembri said. It raised its head as if to strike.

Animal control officers were called but couldn't locate the cobra. Tenants later spotted him sticking his head out of an unfinished electrical cabinet.

Toronto zoo officials were called and police ordered the tenants evacuated. But the snake's owner could not be found.

When Johnson and fellow reptile experts entered Claro's house they found other animals: a large dog, parrot, green frog, and two lizards.

They also came upon a 2-metre Gaboon Viper, a poisonous African snake with 2 1/2centimeter-long fangs, in a living room aquarium, its top poorly secured by a damaged mesh.

Johnson and his colleagues also found three shed snakeskins, two of which – from Egyptian Cobras – were hung in the courtroom yesterday. One of them matched the female in the bakery locker. The other, larger one, is believed to belong to the still missing snake.

On Oct. 10, police found a car with stolen plates and arrested Claro, Schembri said. Claro, through his lawyer Carlos Rippell, contends the plates weren't stolen, and that people's lives were not endangered by his hobby. But he essentially agreed to all the facts set out yesterday.

The last confirmed sighting of the cobra in the house was in early October.

It is believed to be still somewhere in the walls.

Both adjoining homes remain evacuated.

Claro's sentencing hearing continues today before Justice Leslie Pringle.

Link to article

Well, I'm a few days behind on reading the news and just after reading the above article, I located this one posted two days later.
They are presuming the snake dead and going ahead with renovation. One thing is for sure though, if there's a landlord on this continent that will never allow snakes to be kept in his building it will be this guy.
And you can bet other landlords have taken notice of this story as well and many will follow suit. No one was harmed in the incident, so this universal bad press is the greatest damage this idiot has caused, and that will potentially affect many others.

Uninvited tenant slithers no more?

Missing Egyptian cobra declared dead, landlord to renovate house for tenants

The venomous snake that launched a nearly five-month search of a Church St. house is dead.

At least, it's believed to be dead – no body's been found, so its demise can't actually be confirmed. A snake expert hired by the city, however, is confident the recent brutally cold weather killed the elusive male Egyptian cobra, last seen Oct. 2 lurking inside 16 and 18 Church St., adjoining semis in the Weston Rd. and Lawrence Ave. W. area.

Josh Feltham has been trying to find the reptile for months. He thinks it's dead. But, "without producing a body, we're not actually 100 per cent sure. The only other way is to take the house apart and tear it down."

Philip Belanger, though, is determined to erase all doubt. By the time he's finished renovating his rooming house at 16 Church St., it will be a 100 per cent snake-free zone, he says.

The landlord of the five-bedroom Victorian in Toronto's west end has plans to seal all the snake-sized openings in his semi-detached property at 16 Church St., from floor to ceiling, as well as cover all the cracks in between – that is, once the house is cleared by Toronto Public Health. It was cordoned off after the cobra was spotted behind a refrigerator by startled tenants last fall.

On Tuesday, the owner of the cobra, Helder Claro, the former tenant of 18 Church St., was found guilty of mischief and common nuisance. He remains in custody until his sentencing March 7. Court was told Claro, a former pet store owner, had three venomous snakes; the other two are now at the Toronto Zoo.

This month, Belanger drained the pipes and turned off the heat in the rooming house; inside temperatures dropped to zero or below for at least seven days. Health officials consulted snake experts and are "fairly confident" there is no risk, but can't be completely sure without a body, said Mary Margaret Crapper, manager of communications for Toronto Public Health.

The premises may be released soon. Belanger has been called to a meeting next week with a public health official. "I'm anxious to get the house back," he said, "and make the repairs that need to be made. The sooner the better."

The bizarre tale began on Sept. 26, when a tenant saw the 1.5-metre snake in the kitchen. Belanger arrived to find it coiled behind the fridge. He called Animal Services, but the snake was gone when they arrived. It was later heard moving in the basement ceiling.

Although the snake hasn't been seen or heard since Oct. 2, public health officials weren't about to take chances, since cobras can live up to five or six months without food and their bite is potentially fatal. The house was sealed and several tenants had to move out.

Feltham, who's general manager of Vaughan reptile zoo Reptilia, tried everything in his bag of tricks to find the missing cobra: Heaters to make it more active, flour on the floor to check for tracks, listening for long periods to detect movement. He and his partner Grant Ankenman even dug up the earth in crawl spaces under the kitchen.

"We left no stone unturned," he said, adding it would be unusual for such an active snake to stop moving around.

But did the snake give everyone the slip? There are almost as many theories on that as there are, well, snakes.

Some amateurs suggested using a mouse as bait.

Feltham dismissed that idea. "There's already lots of mice running around. What's going to make this snake decide, `Okay, I want to get this mouse inside this cage versus the mouse that's just walking past me now?'"

There is no fancy technology for catching venomous snakes, he said. Instead, snake hunters rely on simple tools such as snake hooks, which look like modified golf clubs; tongs, or grab sticks; and a special tool that has a cotton bag on the end to bag the reptile.

But nothing worked. In the end, Feltham reported he believes the snake is dead, and billed the city over $7,400.

Landlord Belanger has another theory. He thinks the snake slipped back into Claro's semi and was snatched by someone who broke in last fall.

Police confirm they responded to a call to 18 Church St. on Oct. 18 and found a back door with broken glass; they filed a mischief report.

Feltham is doubtful. "It would be amazing for someone to go in and get it and go out, but it's not impossible."

Meanwhile, Belanger says he's got a lot of renovation work ahead of him to replace damaged drywall and carpets.

He estimates his expenses as $40,000, which he hopes to recover from the insurance of the adjoining owner or tenant. Belanger hopes to make the rooming house attractive again for tenants.

"My guys are still with me, they're ready to move back in," he said yesterday. "Obviously there's going to be some skepticism. There's a bit of uneasiness. But I'll fix the place in such a way that even if the snake is there, it's never coming out. Even if they heard it, it wouldn't be able to get in."

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/184988

This is probably the final update to this story. The trial has concluded and the punishment handed down. Here's the story:

Man jailed for keeping deadly pet, snake still MIA

ORONTO — A former Toronto pet store owner was sentenced to one year in Jail Wednesday after a deadly snake he kept in his apartment escaped, forcing the evacuation of the north-west Toronto home and a rooming house next door.

Justice Leslie Pringle said Helder Claro did not seem concerned about the risk his actions posed to other tenants, or his children who visited the apartment.

It was a "miracle" no one was bitten by Claro’s escaped cobra, which still hasn’t been found, Pringle told the courtroom Wednesday.

The 39-year-old pleaded guilty to mischief and nuisance charges in September.

"This is the stuff of nightmares: the missing cobra may yet be alive, lurking in the basement of the home below the frost line, posing a continuing danger," said Pringle.

"Even if the snake is dead, there can be no confirmation until the house is taken apart to find the body."

City officials lifted a sealing order on the two properties, but new tenants must be told that the six-foot-long snake could still be slithering around. A bid to "freeze out" the snake by turning off the heat in both homes failed.

Pringle also ordered Claro pay the properties’ owners a total of $16,825 in lost rent.

Since he has already been in jail for five months, Claro will serve another two months (inmates are usually given two-for-one credit for pre-trial custody).

Pringle rejected Claro’s contention that the tank housing his viper was sufficient to prevent its escape.

And she threw cold water on his argument that the snakes didn’t pose a danger, noting Claro padlocked a room where he kept the cobras.

During Claro’s trial, a zoo official testified that bites from any one of the three snakes Claro kept in his apartment could cause an agonizing death, adding that there was no evidence to suggest their poisonous venom had been removed.

http://tinyurl.com/3a42s9

I don't know how this bothers me more, sorrow for the snake or anger at the dunces who so carelessly kept it.
No matter it is this kind of thing that gives us all a black eye.

I would like to add to the topic if I may. Helder Claro lived at the house at 18 Church St with his children and fiancee. They all lived there for about 3 years. There were all together 4 children. 2, 6, 10, and 12 years old. Three boys and the oldest one a girl. Helder and his fiancee owned a pet store called "Rock and Roll Tropical Pets and Supplies". Apparently, they sold it in January of 2006. He apparently was not allowed to be in business with himself or with anyone. He was basically banned from owning a business, period. Over the years he has moved his business 4 times because of the authorities closing it down due to drug busts, animal cruelty, no business license etc....
Helder Claro has been in trouble with the law for soooo many years. He is known for assult and battery, drug trafficking, break and entering, sexual harrasment, failure to appear, theft etc....The list goes on.
Helder Claro was born in Portugal and has been landed here since 1973.