A family in Chiayi County’s Singang Township (新港) had a shock on Saturday night after they realized that the “dark brown matter” in their toilet bowl was a live cobra.
The Chiayi County Fire Bureau’s Singang Branch received a report of a snake in a toilet at about 7pm on Saturday and dispatched firefighters Ho Chien-yuan (侯建源) and Cheng Yung-tse (鄭永擇) to the family’s home.
Although the snake was hidden inside the toilet and only occasionally raised its head above the water to breathe, the firefighters were able to determine that it was an extremely venomous cobra, based on the shape and patterns on its head.
Photo: Hsieh Yin-chung, Taipei Times
The serpent was about 1m long and weighed about 1kg.
According to the owner of the house, the first person to discover the snake was his six-year-old grandson, who thought the reptile was “poo-poo.”
“However, when I looked down the toilet, I saw a snake. I then tried to pull it out of the toilet because I thought it was a non-venomous striped racer, but I later called ‘119’ because I was unable to extract it myself,” the homeowner said.
The fire bureau advises people to conduct routine maintenance on drainage systems in their homes to prevent snakes from entering through the system.
During summer, reptiles are at their most active and tend to seek cool and shady retreats.
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