No snake service

By Lia Bichel
BERWICK residents who found a deadly snake in their backyard are amazed Casey Council did not provide a free service to remove it.
Elise Knox said she was stunned to find a copperhead snake slithering around in her backyard around noon last week.
“I came home and my dogs were going wild,” she said.
“The snake had come to our front yard from our neighbour’s yard, and then slithered to the backyard and couldn’t escape because of our fencing.
“I was lucky I didn’t come home to dead dogs.” Ms Knox said she was concerned for the safety of her two children, aged four and 18 months as well as her sister and her baby, who were visiting at the time.
Copperhead snakes are the 11th most-venomous snake in the world, and protected by law. Ms Knox phoned the council to get rid of it for her, but they told her she would need to phone a snake catcher.
“They gave me some numbers of different services, but the cheapest I could find was $160. I ended up paying $165 because the snake catcher had to travel 20 minutes to get to my house,” she said.
“I was surprised the council didn’t provide a service, especially with the rates we pay.” Her partner, Jans Hald, said he was annoyed..
“The council takes our rates money, but don’t want to help when there is a problem,” he said. “What annoys me is that we have a protected foreigner in our yard that we have to pay to get rid of.” Ms Knox said snakes had become a problem because of the drought, coming into populated areas for food and water.
The City of Casey’s customer service manager, Rob Colling, told the News that if a resident found a snake at their home, they should call a licensed snake catcher.
“Non-council-owned land is required to be managed by the responsible authority or land owner.”