Nearly 1,700 years after St Patrick banished snakes from Ireland, dozens of them are turning up annually in the Irish capital.
The Irish dislike of the snake appears to be undiminished with the passage of time because snakes are being dumped in streets and parks at the rate of one a fortnight.
The most recent snake incident occurred in the Phoenix Park, where a woman was spotted dumping a snake out of a car close to the zoo. "I suppose she thought it might make its way back home or it would be found and taken there," said Ms Gillian Bird, education officer with the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The DSPCA has the responsibility of looking after stray animals and in recent years that it has been forced to build a special reptile room. Among its long-term residents this St Patrick's weekend will be a six-foot bull snake and a six-foot red-tailed boa, both unwanted pets."The main problem is that people are sold snakes by some dealers and they are not told that they are hard to keep, need specialist food and lots of heat and good equipment," she said.