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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"That they were not reported missing makes one wonder why on God's Green Earth would there be a black market in venomous reptiles.....
"
There's a black market in these reptiles BECAUSE they're illegal to keep in most jurisdictions. Black markets occur because of laws prohibiting things.
There are lots of snake collectors out there, and plenty of them want to own venomous snakes, for reasons I can't understand. In most places, it's illegal, though, so they buy them on the black market.
Better, perhaps, to have a decent licensing system for venomous reptiles. At least there would be some notice that a person had such reptiles in the case of an emergency like a fire which required personnel to enter.
My dad and brother have both been firemen for years. They've had to enter several places full of snakes in cages. Dangerous situation.
'Huh ... you'd think that anybody who thinks to label their box, "Live Venomous Reptiles," would also notice, and report, that they were missing.
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'd be thinking an illegal trade in making products from the skins, or for use in traditional medicines.
LOL!
snake pong
PING!
Cobra snake found in Little Rock.
Training for the Darwin Award?
" I went over and kicked the box"
Only in Arkansas
Snakes alive!
Or a washing machine sized carton marked, "Sweaty, Crystallized, Volatile, Nasty Old Dynamite. Do NOT Kick".
I will never forget my friend kicking a box while we were walking in the desert. It had a battery in it and he broke his foot.
LOL never ever kick a box if you dont know what is in it.
This just has "Far Side" written all over it.
Just wanted to see if they were napping.......don't forget, if he hadn't kicked the box, he wouldn't have said. "'Hot dog! That thing is big!" LOL!
No, I think that only applies in Texas.
Left by some Holy Rollers who were late for a meeting perchance?
A friend in Arkansas peeked into the back of a rusty old semi-trailer that someone had dumped way out in the sticks and found stacks of boxes full of various explosives and him and several other kids tried for days to set the stuff off with firecrackers and M-80's. Good thing they failed because they were literally hiding behind trees within walking distance of the thing...
Note to self: NEVER kick ANY box marked "Live venomous reptile."
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