Posted on 09/12/2004 10:23:57 PM PDT by Kaslin
CINCINNATI -- Zookeepers helped police search for venomous and exotic pets in a house where a woman was fatally bitten by a viper.
Alexandria Hall, 44, was bitten in her home Monday and died Saturday at University Hospital, police and a nursing supervisor said.
Neighbors knew she had pets, including rabbits and birds, but were unaware of her collection of at least nine poisonous snakes and more than one dozen other snakes, lizards and alligators until police went to the suburban North College Hill house.
Police believe an urutu pit viper bit the woman on Monday, and neighbors said she drove herself to Mercy Fairfield Hospital. She was transferred to University Hospital, where she remained in critical condition until her death Saturday evening.
"We have no idea how she made it to the hospital in the first place," said North College Hill police Sgt. Robert Kidd.
After police broke down the woman's front door, three reptile specialists from Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens entered and searched.
An ambulance waited outside the house in case a venomous snake attacked.
"We're going into an environment we're not familiar with, and we don't know where these animals are," said Winston Card, a zoo conservation program manager.
They found more than a half-dozen large lizards running around an upstairs bedroom. The venomous snakes were in secure plastic cases throughout the house, police and zoo officials said, and non-venomous animals were found under boxes and piles of clothes
The pucker factor on this job? Off the charts!
What part of the anatomy is"Her Home"?
Well, there you go.
I used to lurk sometimes at a website for people who keep "hot" (venomous) snakes,and you wouldn't believe how vehemnet they are that it's their "right" to keep these snakes,without licensing,without training,without having to provide proof that they know how to properly keep them,and without it being neccessary for them to provide their own anti-venin. They get exotic snakes from abroad,ofetn smuggled,some for which there is no effective anti-venin.
The US stocks of anti-venin are low right now,and often zoos have to part with the stocks that they keep for their employees,for people who keep these snakes and handle them.Then when the zoo needs it,they may not have it. It can take many vials of anti-venin for some snake bites.
The people on these websites get downright indignant at the very idea that their snakes could endanger themselves,their families,pets,or unsuspecting neighbors. Some keep them in too-small or insecure cages.
It's as if the most irresponsible people,those who feel no accountability,keep the most dangerous snakes,in some cases.
Now they're bringing in snakes like mambas and Russell's vipers,for which there is no truly effective anti-venin,and what there is isn't stocked in large amounts in the US,because those aren't native snakes.
I used to shudder at some of the things I read there,and the way some of the people were so cavalier about handling these snakes.
I agree. Can you imagine being the ones who get to search the house?
At least she gets a Darwin Award.
I'm not sure how a venomous snake is a pet. You can't pet it or touch and unlike fish it pretty much lays in it's aquarium waiting for you to make a false move. At least with a rabbit you can pet it and give it cute names, and if you get bored with it you can just whack it on the head and make stew out of it.
lol
LEAVE the effin snakes ALONE!!!!
And what happens once dude is bitten? Well ....if he is lucky he'll be able to call the medics (and if the medics are lucky they will not be bitten once the arrive .....like some firefighter was when he was introduced to a Gaboon viper. He died ......in an excrutiatingly painful way since Gaboon venom seems like it was concocted in the lower levels of Hades). But the thing is most states do not have antivenin for exotic foreign species.
And even if some adjacent state might have stores, just how long do you think it will take before Dude dies from Krait venom? Or massive envenomation by a Green Mamba? Or a face strike from a Rhinocerous viper (and if that happens to you you can claim a free pass to heaven ....since you have been punished enough).
It is just an accident waiting to happen. It would be even better to have a Rattlesnake or a Coral snake ...at least they are local species.
But no .....Dude wants to have the 'super-venomous Australian Elapid that is 80 times more venomous than a DiamondBack Rattler!' Which means only one thing: if that 'super-venomous' snake bites him he'll be 80 times more likely to die than if he was bitten by a rattler.
If you want to have a dangerous snake ....buy viagra!
What about the Dude who has 100 rats infested with "who knows what" and loses or unleashes them out his back door?
What gets me,is that it's bad enough for them to take chances with their own lives,but they have absolutely no right to put the lives of their families,pets,neighbors,and emergency personnel at risk that way.All it takes is ONE TIME for one of these snakes to get loose,and bite some innocent bystander,or get out in the neighborhood,and someone has to pay with their life for this person's selfishness.
I know it's not all that likely,but it's just stupid and selfish for them to even risk it all for the pleasure of feeling "macho" because they keep an extremely dangerous snake.
It's probably an urban legend,but have you ever heard anything about some cobras that are supposedly descended from some that got loose somewhere near Miami and have colonised? It sounds ridiculous,but until I started reading at that website,I didn't realise how many people are keeping these exotic hot snakes,very dangerous ones. A lot of these people keep many different species,and they breed them for resale to other idiots.
Once upon a time, a woman was picking up firewood. She came upon a poisonous snake frozen in the snow. She took the snake home and nursed it back to health. One day the snake bit her on the cheek. As she lay dying, she asked the snake, "Why have you done this to me?" And the snake answered, "Look, bitch, you knew I was a snake."
I don't know much about snakes,I got into a frenzy of reading about them about a year ago,and was amazed to realise that people in the US are keeping exotic hots and the ramifications of that.
Where is that snake found?
Your whole article was good, but your last sentence killed me. Thanks.
It looks like it's found in Argentina.
When I was a kid we lived in Panama. We had a scout capt in the middle of the wilds called Camp Chagres. My understanding is that the camp closed because two scouts were killed by fer-de-lance bites.....
http://www.survivaliq.com/survival/poisonous-snakes-and-lizards-fer-de-lance.htm
I heard that if you were bitten you would at least lose the limb....if not your life. There's no reason to have a pet like that.
Isn't there some island near there that is uninhabited by humans but overrun with a snake similiar to the fer-de-lance? I forget the name of the snake,but there was a National Geographic special about it. You have to get a government permit to go to it. I remember now,it was near Brazil. I think the snake was a golden lance. The island was just crawling with them.
Here you go....its interesting:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/fieldtales/snakeisland/
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