Shoe polishing helps save homeless snakes!
As snakes on the island get rarer and rarer, the man who runs our only snake farm is faced with eviction
This island was once known and feared for its snakes and cats were even introduced to reduce their numbers. Most of us don’t like them, maybe it is some deep-rooted psychological anxiety or born of their association with evil. From the Bible to Jungle Book, they are the baddies, cunning and devious, a snake in the grass. However, there are fewer and fewer snakes left in the grass. “Of the six main types of snakes in Cyprus, only three are poisonous: one of these, the rare blunt-nosed viper is dangerous to man. The other two are the slender cat snake and the Montpellier snake. They all continue to be killed and have their habitat destroyed,” said Hans-Joerg Weidl, better known as Snake George.
But not all people hate snakes. Recently two men, old friends, have been working together across borders to try and help conserve the snakes of Cyprus. Twenty years ago a young teacher called Volker Schremf from Bielefeld, a small town in Germany, came to Cyprus. He took his children to meet Hans-Joerg Weidl, an ex UN soldier, who had made his home on the island and had a fascination for reptiles. Snake George is now well known both on the island and beyond for his conservation efforts and dedication to protecting the variety of species at his reptile park.
A snake sanctuary is not something everyone wants at the end of their garden and George and his 52 snakes have until Christmas to relocate from their current home near Peyia to new premises. It’s not an easy task and will cost money.
George’s breeding programme, which helps reintroduce snakes back into the wild, especially the beautiful and non-venomous whip snakes, has made groundbreaking discoveries about the endangered blunt nose viper, including the fact that it lays eggs. George welcomes school visits to his reptile park and runs an educational programme. He has produced an excellent guide to the snakes of Cyprus and rediscovered the Cypriot grass snake, natrix natrix cypriaca, which was believed to have been extinct.
Many snakes on the island have been destroyed to the point of extinction. “Many reptile species are dying out through man’s lack of knowledge and fear,” George said.
How justified is this fear? The last time a person was fatally bitten was about 10 years ago and she was not wearing shoes. As George says, snakes will never attack, bites are defensive and usually only happen if the snake is taken unawares, which is why it is essential to wear shoes while walking in the countryside. Snakes hibernate in winter months and will find cool areas under rocks or in undergrowth to escape the summer heat. So it is appropriate that shoes will help save the island’s snakes.
Since 1996, when a local supermarket donated bags filled with shoe brushes and polish to Volker’s school, students have been polishing shoes for free around the town: at the shopping centre, the football stadium, on the streets and in bars asking for a donation to charity.
In 2004, the Shining Shoes Schuler GmbH was officially established as a company, with students running the enterprise as a business, doing the accounts, marketing and HR. All profits were donated to charities of their choice. This year, from January to March, approximately 100 young people polished 400 pairs of shoes. They decided to donate the 1,000 euros raised to help the snakes of Cyprus.
The money is intended to help towards the land that George needs for a new home for his snakes. He is looking for about 2,000m², which must have water and electricity. Volker hopes that in time all the students whose hard brushing has contributed will find a way to visit Cyprus. He is hoping to create an educational exchange with a Cypriot school, which fits in with Snake George’s own motto: “without information, there is no protection of nature and environment.”
www.snakegeorge.com
