Colin, the Giant African Land Snail, with Waste King's Glenn Currie.

Here’s a bizarre but heart-warming story for the summer holiday ‘silly season’.

Glenn Currie, managing director of the specialist collections, clearance and recycling company, Waste King, explained: “One of our customers was moving to the USA and so had to get rid of her pet Giant African Land Snail. We were helping her dispose of her unwanted possessions prior to the move and she asked us to take the snail as well.”

Not wishing to see a repeat of the ‘cat in a green bin’ story which hit the headlines last year in the UK, Waste King operatives took pity on the giant mollusc and brought it back to Waste King’s Hemel Hempstead headquarters.

Now named ‘Colin’, the snail is living in a large glass tank and thriving on a diet of apples, bananas, lettuce and cucumber – with some added cuttlefish to provide it with much needed calcium.

A native of Kenya in East Africa, a Giant African Land Snail can grow to some 25 centimetres in length.

Currie commented: “Having ‘reclaimed’ the snail from a comfortless fate, we could ‘recycle’ Colin and give him to a zoo or a school that would promise to give him a good home. However, all of us at Waste King have grown rather fond of the snail – so we might just keep him.

“He could become our mascot – although, of course, all Waste King operatives work much faster than at a snail’s pace!”

Comment: Aaahh!