Posted on 05/17/2004 11:36:44 PM PDT by HAL9000
Snakes to get home in Texas zoo
LITTLE ROCK — Four venomous African snakes brought to the Little Rock Zoo after they were found in a box near a city intersection will be taken to a zoo in Texas later this week.
The box was found Friday by a motorist, and zookeepers say they can't keep the snakes because they don't have the room or the antivenin for these particular reptiles.
Randal Berry, the zoo's reptile keeper, said he will drive the snakes soon to the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, Texas.
"I'll have them way in the back, and the box will be nailed shut," Berry said. "I'll keep an eye on the rearview mirror the whole way."
The snakes apparently spent several days in a wooden box in a grassy area east of downtown. Paul Mitchell of Little Rock spotted the box and pulled his pickup over to inspect it. The box had the handwritten words "live venomous reptile" on it.
Inside in separate bags were a 14-inch-long twig snake, a 6-foot-long green mamba, a 4-foot-long black mamba, and a 5-foot-long forest cobra.
Mitchell, a purchasing agent for IK Electric, put the box in the bed of his pickup and drove the animals to the Little Rock Zoo.
Berry previously worked for the Lufkin zoo, and knew it had similar snakes and their corresponding antivenin. No lifesaving antivenin exists in Arkansas to treat bites from such reptiles.
"I wish we could keep them. They're interesting snakes. But I'm loaded to the gills. We just don't have a place for them," Berry said.
Berry estimates that the snakes are collectively worth about $1,000.
So four of them have been accounted for, but who know how many more snakes are roaming the Clinton Library grounds, just waiting for a chance to bite someone?
Satan's Serpents visiting the new lair of one of Lucifer's chosen prophets...
YES!
Perfect response!
But this creature was seen running loose in the vicinity.
The hillbilly quotes are better in your link. Thanks.
They were looking for another snake in the grass...
The others dispersed, presumably to return to the Trial Lawyers' convention being held in the library basement.
All of my punch lines have already been taken. Carry on.
Silly me, I thought they were there for a meeting of the DNC.
Out of professional courtesy, the dealy snakes did not bite the impeached former POTUS.
Is there a difference? Maybe it's an employee/employer relationship.
After all he did travel to Africa and we all know how low he'll go!!!
The mambas and forest cobras and really hard to handle - aggressive, very fast, with a strong neurotoxic venom.
Twig snake - no big deal.
Do they have to go to a zoo?
I know a boot maker down in Raymondville who does some really impressive work.
I'd like to know how they got Hillary in a box and why should she should get another home. I thought she already had one in NY state.
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