Someone tried to send 13 snakes to Australia by mail
Image: Australian Department of Agriculture
Digital Reporter
Wednesday, June 24, 2015, 8:01 AM - This is another one of those stories that sounds like it could only come from Australia.
Australian authorities opened up a package at Melbourne's international mail centre marked "mixed powders" -- and found 13 live snakes, apparently sent from Indonesia.
Aside from the incredible inhumanity of transporting live animals overseas in small boxes, the snakes' ending wasn't a happy one: They were all euthanized.
Department spokeswoman Nicola Hinder said it looked as though the snakes were intended either to be sold as pets or used as breeding stock.
Image: Australian Department of Agriculture
"It’s obvious—anyone who claims to be an animal lover and conceals reptiles, or any other animal, in small packages and sends them through the mail does not have the best interests of the animals—or Australia at heart," Hinder said in a release.
Australia has very strict rules around importing exotic species, and given the country's history, they're not being finicky.
Rabbits imported in the 19th Century ballooned so far out of control, they all but overran parts of the country, eating vegetation to the point of vegetation. After attempts to stop their spread using fences failed, they were only kept in check via a form of biological warfare.
More famously, cane toads were introduced in the 1930s to prey on pests at Australia's sugar cane plantations. Instead, they thrived without predators and spread rapidly, damaging ecosystems.
SOURCE: Australian Department of Agriculture
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