Snakes turn up in can of green beans, electric socket

The Year of the Snake in the Chinese astrological calendar was 2013, but at the rate snakes are showing up in different parts of the world, it seems it’s not yet the Year of the Fire Monkey. Over the past few days, two snake sightings were reported, just a few days after a snake swallowed an entire dead kangaroo and gave birth to a two-headed coastal carpet python in Australia.

On Wednesday, a Utah woman found a severed snake head in a can of green beans, reports KSL-TV. The reptile head was found while women and youth members of a Mormon church in Farmington, Utah, were preparing food for older members of the church.

Troy Walker, the woman who found it, was removing beans out of a slow cooker when she noticed something different. “It looked pretty much like a burnt bean, and then I got closer to lift it off the spoon, I saw eyes …. That’s when I just dropped it and screamed,” Walker recalls.

Following the discovery, the Oregon food distribution company stopped further shipment of the Western Family brand of “Cut” Fancy Green Beans. At the Mormon kitchen, the youth dumped several large pots of string beans that were already cooking which they did not check prior to placing it in the pot.

Walker brought the empty tin and the snake head to the supermarket where she purchased the can. She also sent a photo of the two to the distributor. Western Family also stopped further shipment of the green beans from the specific supplier. Sharon McFadden, vice president for quality control of Western Family, said the company is tracing the batch of cans delivered from the same batch brought by Walker so it could also be removed from store shelves.

In Queensland, Australia, a resident in Maroochy River noticed his electric socket was not working and smoke was coming out from it. When the homeowner saw it was a large python, he called a snake expert from Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7, reports The Mirror.

Richie Gilbert, the expert took about an hour to remove the very frightened snake which curled up quite tight. He made two holes in the wall because the python refused to move out of one of the holes. The snake suffered from electrical shock several times and has deep burns on its skin, Gilbert says.

He rushed it to the Australia Zoo for treatment. While Gilbert was getting the snake from the hole, it bit his hand, but carpet pythons do not have venom. Gilbert warns residents of south east Queensland to have their homes checked because one in three have snakes in its roof, he says, citing official statistics.