The Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority (EWSWA) recycling plant on North Service Road East, just off of Central Avenue, probably receives its fair share of unusual items.

On Saturday, however, a worker at the facility found something that was strange, even by waste disposal standards: a live python.

"Our first response was, what it normally is, is that it's probably a wild snake and to just leave it alone — but the individual said he was used to wild snakes ... and he didn't believe it was wild," explained Melanie Coulter, executive director of the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society. "So we sent an officer out, and sure enough it was a domestic python."

According to Cat Griffin, communications specialist with the EWSWA, the snake was moving up the processing line in the facility and was pulled off by an employee of Windsor Disposal Services (WDS), which operates the plant.

"The WDS employee was somewhat familiar with snakes and safely removed the live snake from the processing line and placed him in a recycle box for safe transport to the Humane Society," she said.

Griffin added that it is not the first time a snake has been found at the plant.

The adult male python was approximately 1.2 to 1.8 metres long, and, according to Coulter, is considered "completely harmless ... unless you're a rat."

The Humane Society believes the snake was abandoned, rather than lost.

"Sadly, it's not extremely unusual for us to get snakes that are abandoned," Coulter said. "They seem to be seen often as more disposable pets."

The snake is currently in the care of a reptile expert that will also work on finding the animal a new home.

A City of Windsor by-law forbids residents from keeping "venomous snakes and snakes not indigenous to Canada" as pets.