In case of a water landing, stay away from the snake.

Recently, NBC News Travel reported that an 8" Mandarin Rat Snake (which sounds a little harsh, to us) was escorted off of a Quantas Boeing 747 airliner at Sydney International Airport bound for Tokyo.  Passengers were not allowed to board the plane until Samuel L. Jackson was finished clearing the plane (no, that is not true, we made that up).  But, they did have to put 370 passengers in hotel rooms for the night, and bring in a snake free plane to get them to Tokyo.

The Australian Department of Agriculture quarantined the snake for analysis, but they could not explain how the snake actually got on board. They did conclude that the snake did not have an valid ticket, and may have counterfeited one, but more than likely sneaked on board, by pretending to be a stick, a stylish bracelet, or an adornment on someone's cane.

However it managed the feat the mildly venomous snake did not belong there, and was removed, forcibly, and humiliatingly from the plane, right in view of the entire terminal, and nobody was allowed on the plane until it was fumigated.  Certainly, this was very traumatic for the poor snake.  It would seem that Australians would be more open minded about snakes, and spiders, and stuff that makes most people uncomfortable.  Please see;

http://tim-thingsastheyare.blogspot.com/2013/04/another-good-reason-to-vacation-in.html

However, even Australians have their limits, and free loading snakes catching a lift on their planes may be more than they can handle.  This is probably only going to inconvenience snakes who want to travel, but someone should be thinking about their rights, too.

Another thing to worry about, what if too many of the Mandarin Rat Snakes end up in Australian prisons, what will happen to the Mandarin Rats?  Who will take care of them?   We here at Life Explained urge you to contact your local Australian politician and demand amnesty for the snake.

We have even gone so far as to set up a legal defense fund for the snake, send your donations, electronically in small, (not too small, though, if you want to do good you can't be cheap)  non-sequential bytes to tweettweetjohn@yahoo.com.

Thank you,