MBTA riders Monday evening were met with a slithering surprise when they saw a pet snake on a Red Line train.
One woman snapped a video of the snake while it was being held by a seated passenger.
Anne Keane, rightly so, was a bit shocked to see the animal so out-and-about. She said the snake was spotted on a Braintree-bound Red Line train that departed from South Station around 3:45 p.m.
She posted a clip of the animal wriggling in the hands of another passenger, with the all-caps caption “THIS IS A SNAKE,” in a tweet to the MBTA asking, “uh…what’s the policy here?”
Snake. On the train. @mbta uh…what’s the policy here? #redline #MBTA ? pic.twitter.com/5dvUewVYkJ
— Anne Keane (@adjewelry) August 7, 2017
The MBTA responded that, “During peak hours, small domestic animals must be kept in a lap-sized carrier.”
The T’s pet policy is mainly geared towards dogs and doesn’t mention what to do with any furless, not four-legged friends. The other question, of course, is what about off-peak hours?
“A pet such as this should be transported in a secured carrier at all times when traveling on a train or bus,” said Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the MBTA, in an email.
Pesaturo added that all MBTA customers should be considerate of the other riders and treat them with respect.
“And most of all, use common sense,” he said.
Though all ended fine with this uncaged snake, this isn’t actually the first time a slithery pet has been loose on the T.
In 2011, a boa about three feet long, named Penelope, slipped away from its owner while on the Red Line. Workers helped the owner look for Penelope under seats and through all the train cars, but to no avail.
The snake was lost amidst the MBTA system for weeks, until a passenger spotted it and alerted an MBTA official. That employee, a snake owner herself, according to the Boston Globe, deftly got the boa into a box and off the MBTA.
