40 Dead Snakes Found In Greensboro Home, Man Charged

Fox 8 Video



GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — A man has been charged with leaving behind more than 40 dead snakes after moving out of a rental home.

Chris Walton was charged with multiple counts of cruelty to an animal after snakes and dead rats were found in a rental home on Larson Street.

The animals were all found in plastic crates, decomposed to the point there were only bones, said Tiffany Rahenkamp, Walton's former landlord. The rats were believed to be used as food for the snakes, Rahenkamp said.

"I don't care if it's a dog, a human, a snake or a spider. It's a living thing, you don't have to treat it like this," Rahenkamp said.

Animal control is trying to determine the how the animals died. Rahenkamp said she believes the animals either froze to death or starved. Animal control is also trying to determine the type of snakes found.

"They were no garden snakes. They were much bigger than that," Rahenkamp said.

Walton had just moved out of the home on Thursday and left many other things behind, including TVs, clothing and even food. Rahenkamp said there was also a strong stench when she first walked in.

"It was honestly one of those things where we walked in and walked right back out. It was like a full-time job getting the stuff out of the house," Rahenkamp said.

Walton had rented there for years, Rahenkamp said. Walton was called at work Tuesday but declined a request for comment

Originally Posted by INSANE CANES

"I don't care if it's a dog, a human, a snake or a spider. It's a living thing, you don't have to treat it like this," Rahenkamp said.

Wow, what a douchebag. I hope they are able to prosecute him because that is just ridiculous!

Someone should put that moron in a locked plastic tub and not feed or water him. Im sorry, but some people have no right to breath the same air the rest of us do. What total scumbag.....

This is absolutely sickening. After clicking on the link and watching the news... looks like they were mostly high end ball pythons There were eggs in there and everything. Also it says that he left Thursday, how long were they dead and decaying before anyone noticed the smell??? Just awful

wow that is so sad for those snakes. I wonder if he had a virus wipe them out? From the one picture, they didn't look totally skinny and starved and it mentioned he had rats. Just seems odd that so many would die like that. Course low temps would have done it as well. What a shame

Why should he be charged with animal cruelty? It appears [if the video comments check out] that he lost electricity in December and that's what killed the snakes. If that's true, it was merely accidental and not "cruelty." In the case that they were accidentally frozen, that's actually a fairly humane way to die for an ectotherm. I'd be inclined to believe, since he had morphs and was breeding, that this would be true. They were obviously of value and he obviously knew the trade to an extent at which he could get them off his hands if he so pleased. It's unlikely he's just some moron with a "couple of PY-tons." Either way, there's not enough evidence to conclude that he mistreated or intentionally harmed these animals.

I think the true villain in this story is the they interviewed. "We definately learned a lesson, next time we're going to be more strict, more unexpected visits. Um, more penalties and stuff like that because apparently people take advantage <sound cuts off>" As someone who until recently, has been raised in rental after rental and has always respected the properties, I'm disgusted when people who sell [or in this case, rent] their product out to consumers turn around and treat them like second rate citizens. Some are just downright unpleasant elitists.

There is nothing "humane" about letting 40 snakes freeze to death (or even one snake). If this guy did nothing wrong, he should have at least removed their bodies.... plus, if something horrible happened and I lost power for more than a short while, I would actually go out of my way to get my reptiles either to a friend's or rehomed them. Simply letting them die (however "humane" the method of death) would not even be close to an option for me... :-(

To say that having THAT many snakes die because of neglect is not cruelty is ridiculous. I don't care what happens to your electricity you can't simply leave them to die! That's like saying that I let my dog die, I just didn't have the money to keep feeding it so I didn't. He obviously bought them from somewhere. Take them back, put an add in the paper/craigslist/online/the telephone pole outside walmart, something!

Also, freezing is NOT really all that of a great way to euthanize. Think about what it would be like to have individual cells of your body burst as the water in them slowly froze. The periphery of the body would freeze before the snake/reptile actually dies. If you have no other options to euthanize a reptile, you can use the cool down in the fridge and then transfer to the freezer method, but even then I would have questions regarding the pain it caused the animal.