The Oxford County Animal Rescue Team learns how to handle tortoises verses turtles at a training session with Mr. Drew’s Exotic Rescue and Education Center in Lewiston on Saturday morning. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Drew Desjardins poses with a Savannah monitor lizard named Lazy Bones during a training session for the Oxford County Animal Rescue Team on how to handle exotic species in emergency situations, at Mr. Drew’s Exotic Rescue and Education Center in Lewiston. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Sue Bradford handles Peter, a Macklot’s python, during a training session for the Oxford County Animal Rescue Team on how to handle exotic species in emergency situations Saturday in Lewiston. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Pat Ingersoll holds Nagini, a large constrictor, as Travis Larrabee give it a pat on the head at a training session for the Oxford County Animal Rescue Team on how to handle exotic species in emergency situations Saturday in Lewiston. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

LEWISTON — Members of the Oxford County Animal Response Team met friends of Drew Desjardins on Saturday during a training session in which they learned how to handle and care for exotic animals.

Ken Ward, OXCART leader, said the group provides a safe place for animals to stay while their owners deal with disasters such as ice storms and hurricanes, (the OXCART members helped with the Ice Storm of ’98 and Hurricane Katrina) and assists local shelters and emergency responders.

“We’re here to get the team to know how to deal with these types of exotic animals,” Ward said. “The biggest thing is how to read them. If you don’t understand them, they won’t understand you.”

Desjardins, of Mr. Drew and His Animals Too, has been working with exotic animals for over 35 years. He takes in and cares for them, travels New England to educate others about them, and most recently began assisting state lawmakers in creating clear and concise exotic animal laws.

“I take what the humane societies won’t,” Desjardins said. “If it’s cute and fluffy, I don’t do it.”

Inside his space at 550 Lisbon St., two tortoises wandered free, and Charlie, a blue and yellow macaw, sat on a wooden perch, eating a banana and watching the other animals that assist Desjardins in his educational animal shows.

“I take away the fear with knowledge,” he said. “If you understand it, you can’t be scared of it.”

There was Gomez, the Argentine black and white tegu lizard, which lounged contently in the arms of OXCART members while Desjardins explained the varying temperaments of lizards.

Aphrodite, a feisty little iguana, demonstrated just how varying, with her constant warnings to Desjardins that she would rather be in her cage, delivered in the form of a gaping mouth and a swishing tail.

“These animals have a tail like a saw blade,” said Desjardins, as he lovingly petted the thrashing reptile. “A 6-foot male can slice you right open.”

His enthusiasm and adoration for animals was obvious through the pristine cages and tanks, and the way the creatures gravitated toward him as he walked past their enclosures.

Joe Maloney, a common snapping turtle, assisted Desjardins in demonstrating how to properly handle turtles, and how to identify a snapper by its long tail. Between head rubs and affectionate banter with Joe, who quite enjoyed the chin scratches in particular, Desjardins told the OXCART members to get a broom handle for a really big snapper.

“Once they bite that, they won’t let go and you can move them a little easier,” he said, adding that you have to be extra cautious with snappers, not only because of their vice-like clamping mouth, but also because they can climb fences, jump, and roll back over if flipped onto their backs.

Rosebud, an elderly boa constrictor, helped Desjardins show the OXCART how to use a snake hook. He said a snake bag or pillow case is the safest way to transport a snake. Rosebud, who is in her 30s, slithered along the shoulders of the team members, causing some to shiver and others to smile.

“More people get killed by falling vending machines and escalators each year than snakes,” Desjardins told the giddy group.

As Nagini, a massive boa constrictor, much younger and stronger than Rosebud, wound her way around Desjardins’ arm so tight his hand turned white, he explained that snakes don’t squeeze to crush or suffocate their prey.

Nagini, in fact, was just trying to get a firm grip to keep from falling, but if she did want to eat him, he said, she would squeeze to cut off the blood flow to his heart and brain.

“They act like a blood pressure cuff,” Desjardins said. “They can also smell carbon dioxide, so they can sense where their prey breathes from, and start with the head. It makes consuming them easier, because all the limbs will fold the right way.”

[email protected]