FALLSTON, Md. — Even as a professional animal care technician, Jack Kesler’s knowledge of flesh-eating fish is about as murky as the waters they now call home at the Humane Society of Harford County.
“I’ve not had a whole lot of fish experience generally. Definitely not piranhas,” said Kesler.
“Did you find yourself on Google trying to prepare for this?”
“Absolutely, they came in through Animal Control and we were just frantically Googling trying to make sure we could set them up properly.”
Fallston shelter gets crash course in their care after taking in 4 piranhas
As an open-admission shelter, the Humane Society prides itself on taking in all kinds of pets.
Even four red-bellied piranhas discovered near death, which had been abandoned by their owner.
“Originally, they came in in a Tupperware container,” recalled Kesler, “and then we tried to get a tank set up that had a lid already there, but it ended up not being big enough so we set up this one and kind of McGyvered the top so they couldn’t jump out and when we tried to transfer them from the smaller tank to this one, they chewed through our net.”
In her 19 years at the shelter, Marketing Director Erin Long had never seen piranhas come in, and it only took her about 19 seconds to realize aggressive fish with razor sharp teeth may not be her specialty.
“I actually walked in a couple of hours after they were here and I think I was moving too quickly and they were throwing themselves up against the glass and they were darting all over the aquarium. It was kind of unsettling,” Long told us.
“That’s when you put Jack in charge of feeding them?” we asked.
“I absolutely want Jack in charge of feeding them,” she responded.
And feed them he will, whether it’s sun-dried red shrimp or freeze-dried mealworms---anything, but human flesh.
“I noticed when you were giving them food, when they move around quickly, you seemed like you moved your fingers back,” I pointed out to Kesler.
“Yes,” he responded, “Just a little bit… especially with them being able to jump out you. I’m good.”
