Less than two weeks after an African rock python killed two young Canadian boys while they slept, authorities seized 40 pythons from a single motel room in Brantford, Ontario.
The ball pythons ranged in size from 1 foot to 4 1/2 feet long, and were stored in plastic storage bins, CNN reported.
“It appeared as though they were being kept for breeding purposes” Brantford Police Sgt. Cheney Venn told CNN. “(They) were not being suitably cared for and were in distress.”
The snakes were seized on Thursday at the Bell City Motel in Brantford, about 65 miles southwest of Toronto, by the county’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Four people, including two children, were in the room at the time.
Venn told CNN that the family had checked into the motel after they were evicted from their prior residence.
Though it is illegal to own a python in Brantford, no arrests have been made and no names have been released by authorities. The pythons have since been transported out of the area and are expected to be cared for by experts.
Earlier this month, an African rock python escaped its cage in a New Brunswick reptile store, made its way through the ventilation system and strangled two boys, 5 and 7, who were sleeping in the apartment above the store.
