A woman was left red-faced after calling the RSPCA when she found a 'king cobra' in her garden - which turned out to be a children's toy.
Martyn Fletcher from the RSPCA was sent round to the house after the woman thought she had spotted the world's most venomous snake in her garden in Cumbria.
The animal rescuer said he was worried on his way over as he knew all too well just how dangerous the snakes are, so he was relieved when he actually arrived, as the Daily Star reports.
When he got near the chair where the snake had been spotted he was glad to see it was still in the exact same place, then he noticed it was moving at all - before realising it was actually a plastic toy.
What do you think of the woman's sighting? Let us know in the comments...
Martyn said: "It didn’t take me too long to realise that this king cobra was the plastic kind - thankfully too, as they are deadly venomous snakes.
"Obviously we are trained to be able to identify snakes but it is not so obvious to members of the public - so I understand they may have been spooked by the sighting.
"It appears that the toy had come from children in a neighbouring garden - so the snake has now been returned to its home!"
The incident regarding the King Cobra came to light as the RSPCA revealed the funniest callouts they received last year.
RSPCA officers have to deal with a lot of distressing and shocking cases but they are also called out to some rather strange situations, including many that turn out to be a mistake.
Inspector Dale Grant was involved in one such incident as the RSPCA received a call reporting a dog squealing and crying while tethered tightly to a canal boat in London.
The call prompted Dale to rush to the Grand Union Canal, in Hayes, on May 14, only to find his expertise wouldn’t be required.
He said: “I was really worried that I could be walking into a dire situation involving a dog in a really dangerous predicament but it turns out I needn’t have worried.
“The ‘dog’ in question turned out to be a stuffed toy tiger that had been tied onto the bow of the boat!”
Also, one very frightened man in Somerset believed a large snake was stuck in his new sofa but on closer inspection by Inspector Kim Walters, the ‘snake’ was actually just a piece of his sofa.
Other incidents officers have had to handle have been several more plastic snakes, a bag of soil that a concerned member of the public had thought was the body of a dead badger.
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