Posted on 05/17/2004 12:18:50 PM PDT by 11th Earl of Mar
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A curious pickup truck driver spotted a box in the grass marked "Live venomous reptile" east of downtown and stopped to take a look.
"When you see something like that, you want to look and see what it is," Paul Mitchell of Little Rock said of his Friday afternoon discovery. "I went over and kicked the box."
The electrician looked inside and found a cloth bag slithering into the form of a cobra ready to strike.
"I was like, 'Hot dog! That thing is big!'" Mitchell said.
Mitchell grabbed up the box, put it in the bed of his truck and took it to the Little Rock Zoo.
"I was just going to take it back to work and kill it, but I figure cobras aren't indigenous to Arkansas," Mitchell said. "I knew the zoo would have a snake handler."
Randal Berry, the zoo's reptile keeper, took the snakes in out of concern for public safety. He said the zoo doesn't usually take in animals.
Berry said the cobra was very aggressive as he pulled it from the sack, repeatedly rearing its hooded head. Also inside the box were a 14-inch-long twig snake; an East African bright green mamba that measured 6 feet long, and a 4-foot black mamba. All are highly venomous and there is no antivenin in Arkansas.
Berry said the snakes were in good condition and estimated that, together, they were worth about $1,000.
No one knows where the snakes came from. The box had no markings other than "Live venomous snakes." Berry said no snakes were missing from the zoo.
Cindy Dawson, assistant city attorney and zoo docent, guessed that the snakes came into the city illegally. Keeping, selling, possessing or maintaining venomous reptiles is illegal, though some exceptions are made for education, research and entertainment.
City officials said they're hopeful all the snakes are accounted for, but that they would remind any animal control workers that calls reporting any exotic snakes could be serious and not pranks.
Zoo officials said they haven't decided what they're going to do with the snakes, including the seething cobra.
"I don't want it here," Berry said with a laugh. "He's not a nice guy."
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Are the Clintons' in Arkansas?
I know when I see a box labeled venomous reptiles, my first reaction is to kick it.
Are there electric fences in Arkansas?
You gotta wonder what would have happened had the box been marked "Nitroglycerin."
That they were not reported missing makes one wonder why on God's Green Earth would there be a black market in venomous reptiles.....
""I went over and kicked the box."
"
Hold muh beer an' watch this BUMP.
Yes, the Clinton's are in Arkansas.
Didn't you read the story?
They are inside the box?
LOL!
Hold muh beer...
Hey, y'all. Watch this!
Looky this little critta! Crikey!
"Are there electric fences in Arkansas?"
Don't know, but if you git a divorce in Arkansas are you still brother and sister?
Maybe algore found another use for his lock box...
Sufficient warning for most of us.
Wish I could remember how to make rattlesnake eggs, cuz it was always a winner on April Fools day & I never pulled it on any of my kids. The severed finger in a box got old for them years ago.
Anyway, speaking of zoo mishaps, did anyone around here post anything about the two thousand gallon monkey dung drop on one of Milwaukee's freeways, bout a week ago?
"When you see something like that, you want to look and see what it is," .
"I was just going to take it back to work and kill it, but I figure cobras aren't indigenous to Arkansas,"
"I was like, 'Hot dog! That thing is big!'"
I've never been to Arkansas, but I understand that both The Sinkmaster and Snuffy Smith are residents. You just can't make this stuff up.
Owl_EagleGuns Before Butter.
Naughty boy
In Massachusetts, you're still Brother and Brother or Sister and Sister.
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