Reuters: Oddly Enough: Cash-strapped UK government spends $16,000 on a dead snake

Reuters: Oddly Enough Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Cash-strapped UK government spends $16,000 on a dead snake Nov 2nd 2012, 11:26 LONDON | Fri Nov 2, 2012 7:26am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Foreign Office spent 10,000 pounds ($16,100) to re-stuff the corpse of a giant 120-year-old snake, at a time when government departments are being told to rein in spending. In response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from political blog Guido Fawkes, the Foreign Office said the 20 foot anaconda - called Albert - had been in poor condition and required "essential maintenance". "Albert the anaconda was allegedly presented by a Bishop, in what is now Guyana, to the Colonial Secretary in the 19th century", the Foreign Office said. The huge reptile hangs in a Foreign Office library and is regarded as a departmental asset in a country whose former empire once ruled over vast swathes of the planet. "Austerity, what austerity?", asked the blog in red below the response. A spokesman for the Foreign Office recoiled at the suggestion that reviving Albert's looks might not be essential work for a government whose prime minister warned voters just last month to brace for "painful decisions" on the economy. "It is quite a bit of money, but he is a very big snake. We will not be constricted, nor will we scale back, in our dedication to preserve this historic national treasure". ($1 = 0.6196 British pounds) (Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer, editing by Paul Casciato) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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