My Impossible Princess has brought in a snake with a yellow ring on it's neck.

I looked it up on the internet and it says it is an American snake.

How do I get rid of it? RSPCA is shut. Can I ask the police?

Are you sure it's not a British Grass Snake?

grass snake

http://www.umass.edu/nrec/snake_pit/pages/ringn.html

It looks like this one.

It could be, I guess, but the Grass Snake is native, pretty common, and has a very distinctive yellow ring at the neck. the picture I posted doesn't do the colour justice - they are very bright.

better picture?

It's your call...

Looks like the yellow on the Grass Snake forms a sort of V. The US Snake has a straight ring...

This one has a straight ring and very pretty. I just don't want my cat bringing it back in.

I phoned RSPCA and they are sending someone round.

yellow ringed snake would almost certainly be a grass snake, I cant see it being an american ring necked snake, I dont even know if they are kept in captivity? they wouldnt be common at least, so the likelyhood of one being released or escaping would be low.

I think a grass snake is most likely. If it was an American snake a garter snake would be most likely as they are relatively commonly kept as pets, Virtually an American equivalent of the British grass snake and similar but with black lines down it's body but that wouldn't match your collared snake photo very closely.

It smelled rather pungent. I don't know if all snakes smell when attacked but my goodness what a stink!

She has since brought a pork chop into the house which was much safer.

The puple headed snake is popular here too...

Grass snake defence tactics, not being venomous, is to release pungent contents of bowels, smells like rotting fish (fish is part of their diet) and smell clings like heck,and/or to play dead, usually lying belly up with tongue lolling out.

So what was it? you said someone was coming round.

I'd say with 99.9% certainty it was a Grass Snake.

The description fits and they musk ... which would explain the stinkiness.

In 20 years of keeping snakes, I have never heard of anyone in the UK keeping the Ringneck Snake you linked to so I doubt it was an escaped pet.

It disappeared,so the RSPCA lady could not come to see it but she said she had been asked to get a grass snake from a pond and she said it smelled like I described.

Then she found it again soon after and I put it in the garden where it ended up in the compost heap.

The fact that it legged it - or not - to the compost heap is another clue that it's one of the snakes native to Blighty too. Grass snakes spend a lot of time around compost heaps, especially laying eggs or when coming out of hibernation.

There are snakes in England?

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Which parts are they most common in so I can avoid them?

I honestly didn't know you could find wild snakes in England >.<

There are three native snakes in England: grass snakes which eat small fish and amphibians and unsurprisingly lives in similar areas to its prey: Areas with long grass and vegetation to hide in around ponds, lakes and small streams. (All snakes swim well)
Adders/vipers which are venomous and live in dry sandy areas and eat small rodents which they kill with a poisonious bite and smooth snakes which contrict their prey, are very rare and live in similar dry sandy areas as adders/vipers.
All British snakes are quite small, being up to a maximum of about three foot long.
They will generally try to avoid you and as they hear by picking up vibrations from the grounds so they feel your footsteps and move away or hide before you get there.