Oregon’s Columbia County Sheriff’s Office conducted a search warrant Friday against unnamed residents who were allegedly freezing puppies to feed their pet snakes.
The search yielded 18 frozen puppies, and they were moved “to the Oregon Humane Society to determine the cause of death,” Oregonian sheriffs said Saturday in a Facebook post. (RELATED: Researchers Discover 7-Foot-Wide, 500-Pound Pile Of Pythons)
“Several snakes were located at the residence and one snake was subsequently seized by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) as part of the investigation,” law enforcement said. The local Oregonian sheriff’s office stated that their investigation into this incident was still ongoing.
A spokesman for the sheriff’s office told KOIN 6 News that Columbia County District Attorney Joshua Pond was working on charges against the individuals involved. Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek appointed Pond as the district attorney in Nov. 2023, The Columbia County Chronicle & Chief reported.
After the county Animal Control received information that the resident was freezing the litters of puppies for this purpose, CCSO deputies executed the search warrant Friday morning. https://t.co/pnAjMVax9p
— KOIN News (@KOINNews) March 23, 2024
Pet snakes typically are fed some kind of rodent or young birds, according to petMD. “You’ll want to purchase appropriately sized whole frozen prey from a pet store and keep it stored in a freezer. When feeding day is approaching, transfer the prey you plan to feed to its own bag and move from [the] freezer to the refrigerator to thaw. Food should be ready in 1-2 days.”
Some wild snakes like anacondas use their sheer size to crush their prey and swallow them whole, according to Round Glass. The anaconda has been known to consume turtles, crocodiles, jaguars, wild pigs, deer and even at times humans, according to Rainforest Cruises.