Trivia: Unusual animals on buses (snakes etc)

[Galactic142]

This morning I was on the bus into town when a lady got on with a large snake hung round her neck! It was a very well behaved snake but it was also a rather crowded bus so I hope the person who ended up sitting next to it wasn’t fazed by it. As someone who’s terrified of snakes, I was rather glad there was only 3 more stops until I got off…

Out of curiosity, I checked Stagecoach’s website and all their FAQs about animals just refer to dogs – anything else can be carried ‘at the driver’s discretion’, so they clearly don’t have a policy on snakes then.

To be clear, although I dislike snakes, I’m not saying we should ban them on buses – though I might have felt more comfortable if it had been in a box/pet carrying cage (I assume such things for snakes must exist). If the owner’s got it under control and the driver’s okay with it then fair enough, and let it come on.

Anyway, I know there’s been snakes on trains discussed in this forum before, but I couldn’t find anything on buses, so that made me wonder what other unusual animals people have experienced travelling on buses? Is there any animal you can’t bring onto a bus?

Mods - if this would go better in the Trivia section then please move it over.

 

[Eyersey468]

I've had people bring cats on the buses before and once had someone try and bring a hamster on a NX coach, he was refused as NX don't allow pets on the vehicles, obviously assistance animals are allowed

 

[Thames99]

Snake used as face mask on bus

A passenger said she thought the man was wearing a "funky mask" until she spotted it slithering.

www.bbc.co.uk

This article relates to a passenger in the Manchester area wearing a snake. This was in the time of Covid when face masks were obligatory. 'Transport bosses in Greater Manchester confirmed a snake was not a valid face covering.'

 

[RustySpoons]

I very nearly launched myself out of the emergency exit of a First Calderline Olympian when the chap sat next to me on the back row pulled a tarantula out of his bag.

 

[DelphDonkey]

Many years ago there used to be a man who every day got the 92 bus in Manchester from Levenshulme to Longsight and back. With him there was always a dog on a lead, who travelled on a dog ticket. Until one day an inspector with some natural history knowledge got on and identified the dog as in fact being a baboon, and told him that being such it ought to be carried in a cage as per MCTD bye-laws. The same old hand who told me this story also told me of a time when as duty inspector at Piccadilly bus station he was approached by a woman leading two goats, who complained that the guard of the Alderley Edge bus had refused them entry. The inspector advised her to take them up to Piccadilly train station, and see if they could travel in the guard's van. An hour later she returned, having also been rejected by the railway, and demanding to know how she could get these goats home. The inspector told her she could saddle them up and ride them if she liked, but they weren't going by bus. (I can't imagine where she got the goats from, unless the pet shops in Tib Street kept such livestock).

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I've travelled on buses in the past with an assortment of four-legged companions. Including a trip from Huddersfield to the PDSA at the far side of Bradford (3 buses) with a rabbit in a cat carrier, then back again with the same rabbit minus two organs!

 

[BuhSnarf]

I once travelled on the Metrolink and there was a woman standing near the door who had a (what I think was) a ferret on her shoulder. Very well behaved it was.

 

[Eyersey468]

I once travelled on the Metrolink and there was a woman standing near the door who had a (what I think was) a ferret on her shoulder. Very well behaved it was.

The woman was well behaved or the ferret?

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

I once saw a gentleman attempt to board a First Leeds Dennis Dart in Holbeck with a large parrot sitting on his shoulder.
When the driver refused him he turned to the parrot and said "we've been let on before, haven't we? So why not now? The bus driver is a w****r isn't he?"
The parrot did not reply.

 

[G_for_Gnome]

On a bit of tangent…the animal on board without an owner…

I once had a driver radio in to inform us that a budgie had boarded the bus. He had been waiting at the terminus for the next journey. So they waited with all the doors, windows and emergency exits open and just hoped it would fly away, it eventually did.

I got the impression the driver wanted to keep it “it’s such a shame because it’s beautiful…definitely someone’s pet”, he said.

Dropped so much mileage on that board that day, “errant budgie on board”, it was one of the more memorable days.

 

[Nammer]

I've travelled to/from my vets with one of my houserabbits in a carry cage on several occasions.

 

[izvor]

On a bit of tangent…the animal on board without an owner…

I've had an unaccompanied cat, and a squirrel, on my bus. Both had to be shooed off - not in possession of a valid ticket.

 

[JasonL]

I once remember seeing a man on a bus with an African Gray Parrot on his shoulder, was a bit loud and said some things that I cannot say on here!

 

[Hyebone]

was a bit loud and said some things that I cannot say on here!

I've known worse human passengers!

 

[Deerfold]

On a bit of tangent…the animal on board without an owner…

I once had a driver radio in to inform us that a budgie had boarded the bus. He had been waiting at the terminus for the next journey. So they waited with all the doors, windows and emergency exits open and just hoped it would fly away, it eventually did.

I got the impression the driver wanted to keep it “it’s such a shame because it’s beautiful…definitely someone’s pet”, he said.

Dropped so much mileage on that board that day, “errant budgie on board”, it was one of the more memorable days.

Less exotic, but I was one if the last passengers off a bus in Halifax about 20 years ago.

The driver was asking whose the dog was.

It had got on in Illingworth and the driver had assumed it was accompanying one of the passengers rather than him deliberately kidnapping it.

 

[JD2168]

A few months ago a man travelled from Barnsley to Doncaster on the X19 with a tarantula in a box that had been bought from a nearby pet store.