IF YOU go for a walk on the beach in Laytown, Co Meath, this summer don’t be surprised to find a man there who’s got a 4.2m python with him.
“It is good for his digestion to swim in the rock pools,” explains Peter Trinder (49), proud owner of Hiss, an albino Burmese python.
Exotic pets are the norm in the Trinder household – Peter and his wife Ann share their bedroom with Hiss and two other snakes as well as a savannah lizard.
The couple and their four children also have an assortment of cats, dogs and birds, and Ann says word has spread about their love of animals. “People have left an injured sparrowhawk and a hedgehog on our doorstep because they know we will look after them.”
Of all their pets Hiss is the most show-stopping. About a year old, he won’t be fully grown until he is four.
“He is only 14 feet at the moment – he will grow to 24 feet and will then weigh 250 lb ,” says Peter. “He is my pride and joy.”
The snake currently weighs 77 lb (35 kilos) and eats rabbits, feeding twice a week.
Peter says the digestive beach trips are important for his pet. “I put him in rock pools and he does his thing. He is getting to the point where it will take two of us to bring him down here,” he says, staying beside Hiss and making sure he does not go near other people or any dogs brought to the beach.
Ann also brings Bosco the lizard there, and he likes to try to climb the rocks.
The couple do not like the recent trend of people buying exotic animals as if “they were a status symbol”.
“They are a commitment and when the novelty wears off people are just dumping them,” says Ann, who adds she was the first to want a reptile, and says “for Valentine’s Day, I get a snake”.
Her husband agrees, saying it makes perfect sense because “chocolates make you fat and roses die after two days”.