The Anniston Star l Monday, November 16, 2009
MONDAY RECORD YOUR GUIDE TO PUBLIC RECORDS AND VITAL STATISTICS IN CALHOUN COUNTY
Off to work ... with a reptile zookeeper
Handling venomous reptiles just part of the job for Anniston visitor By Bill Edwards bedwards@annistonstar.com
Talk about snake-handling with most folks around here, and they think of primitive Protestant denominations testing their faith. But when Natalie Garritano of Clyde Peeling’s “Reptiland” goes off to work and handles a snake, it just might be mealtime for “Big Brownie,” an 18-foot-long, 120-pound reticulated python. One pre-killed, pre-warmed rabbit coming right up. Garritano, a 22-year-old biology major who graduated in May from Lycoming College in Pennsylvania, is the traveling caretaker for Clyde Peeling’s private zoo in Allenwood, Pa. Living in Anniston since September, Garritano has been responsible for the care and safety of the snakes, lizards and tortoise that make up the “Reptiles: The Beautiful and the Deadly” exhibit at the Anniston Museum of Natural History. She said she’ll miss our sweet tea after she departs Anniston later this week. It’s not that she’s not having a good time, but the plan all along was that she would be relieved by another Reptiland employee about halfway through the exhibit’s life. The thing is, as much “fun” as the job might seem to the average snake-loving 9year-old boy, hazards and responsibilities are Please see work ❙ Page 3
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Bill Wilson/The Anniston Star
Natalie Garritano looks through a snake skeleton on exhibit at the Anniston Museum of Natural History.
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