[snake]Sacks of snakes on balcony shock residents
Posted:2007-5-25|Source:Shanghai Daily|No. of Views:
PEOPLE in a residential area in Chengdu, the capital of Southwest China's Sicuan Province, were shocked yesterday by the appearance of at least 100 wild snakes on the balcony of an apartment.
An elderly woman, surnamed Zheng, called police immediately when she noticed "numerous sacks" of snakes piled on a balcony two floors below her home at 7am, Chengdu Morning Post reported today.
Zheng, living on the fifth floor in Building 1 of the area, warned other residents about the "horrible scene."
"I was doing morning exercises on my balcony when I suddenly saw that a couple on the third floor (of our building) were holding a snake on the balcony," Zheng told the police.
Then they opened a sack and put the snake into it and Zheng saw that the sack was full of hissing snakes.
And the balcony was filled with "many snake sacks," Zheng said.
A reporter from the Chengdu Morning Post arrived and found 16 snake-filled sacks on the balcony.
Zheng also called the local property management.
Residents closed their windows and locked the doors. Everybody moved fast when in opens space for fear of attacks by escaping snakes
Firemen and forestry police rushed to the apartment at 9am. But the snakes were not moved from the balcony.
After questioning the wife, police said the snakes were there for "freeing."
"We brought the snakes from a wet market in Qingshiqiao," said the woman, surnamed Deng. "And we have drafted a schedule to set them free." Deng's words were later confirmed by a vendor in the market.
The local Dujiangyan Municipal Forestry Bureau is discussing finding a suitable place for the couple to liberate the snakes.
Traditional Chinese people believed that killing a living thing is a serious crime. Monks and nuns eat only vegetables as a way of accumulating merit and virtue.
Believers free animals to pray for health, wealth and off-spring.
