Instead of cats and dogs, why not get a snake, ask brothers

Brothers Hamza and Hassan Hussain say that people have a lot of misperceptions about the animals.

KARACHI: When most people head to a pet store, they usually have a Persian kitten, a pair of budgies or perhaps even a playful Labrador on their minds. But for brothers Hamza and Hassan Hussain, nothing is quite as exciting as the thought of owning an 11-foot long python.

The brothers are now on a mission: They want other people in Pakistan to realise that snakes make great pets. And considering their efforts over the past two years to achieve this, it doesn’t seem like an unachievable task. The boys have already turned their passion into a sustainable business and have a stock of 28 pythons.

“Tell people some basic facts about the reptiles - such as the fact that pythons aren’t venomous - and they are more than willing to take pictures with one wrapped around their necks,” said 20-year-old Hamza, who is a BBA student at Bahria University.

He added that snakes make for unique pets. “You can’t give a snake a name because they all look alike and they don’t respond to you like other pets. Keeping snakes is all about passion.”



The brothers have had a special enclosure built on the roof of their home in PECHS in which they keep seven Albino and Indian Rock pythons. The largest one is 11-foot-long and eats chickens. The remaining snakes are kept at other facilities they maintain with friends.

The brothers’ passion for raising snakes as pets began when Hamza saw the green boa in the children’s cartoon ‘Jungle Book’. “I always wanted that but couldn’t find the green one,” he laughs. The brothers’ first pet snake was a Sand Boa, which they purchased for Rs1,500.

Of course, they had a hard time convincing their parents. “You can imagine the difficulty we faced at home from the fact that in two years, nobody has come up to touch a snake except for my little nephew,” said Hamza.

A little later, they bought a six-foot long Indian Rock Python for Rs15,000. A few months later, they imported Albino pythons for $1500 - the only time their father gave them money for the snakes. “After that we were on our own. We started earning by charging a few hundred rupees from people who wanted their pictures taken with the pythons.”

As the word spread, people flocked from as far as Nazimabad to see the python. In their neighbourhood, the brothers came to be known as ‘Hamza and Hassan saanp walay’.

Hassan, who is studying veterinary sciences at Baqai Veterinary College, says they have sold six snakes at a profit after nurturing them for a few months. Over the past few months, they have attended more than 15 carnivals where the snakes have been exhibited and even appeared on television channels.

“Now universities are approaching us. They want us to come and speak about the snakes. There are misperceptions about these creatures. Everyone thinks pythons are venomous,” he says.

But people who choose snakes as pets really need to keep an eye on them - especially if other animals are around. Most of the time the brothers keep the snakes locked in the room but one morning, Hamza was giving a bath to the Indian Rock python on the roof. “Our neighbour’s cat liked to linger on the roof. I didn’t see it come. I turned around for just a few seconds and when I looked again, the python had caught hold of it. In fifteen minutes, there was no cat left.” This isn’t the only time that the snakes caused a commotion. When one of the pythons fell sick and died, Hassan wrapped it in newspapers and hid it in the refrigerator so that the body would not decompose - he wanted to stuff the animal. “All hell broke loose when my mother discovered it there.”

Thousands of Indian Rock pythons have been killed in Pakistan for their skin. Local hunters realize they earn just Rs15,000 by selling a live python whereas it skin can be exported for as much as $1,000 (over Rs90,000).

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2013.