He makes some damn good shampoo, though.
The kind you get in a SAL-on.
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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whaycha goin ta do, pi$$ on it?g
Sounds like somebody brought some souveniers back from South Africa.
The Cobra might have been the most feisty, but those mambas take a back seat to no serpent in its deadliness to man. They were juveniles, because they can get to 14 feet in length at adulthood.
What is the last think a redneck says?
"Hey ya'll, watch this!"
The cobra's not the problem, its the TWO mambas that you worry about. Due to security concerns, incidents like this should be handled the same as if they found bomb making materials.
I know I wouldn't want to live near neighbors involved in either of these activities.
The one with God making a snake is one of my favorites.
He makes some damn good shampoo, though.
The kind you get in a SAL-on.
Ouch!
OTOH, your friend sounds like a good candidate for a burning paper bag on the doorstoop...
If any snake would deserve the sobriquet, Terminator, it would be the Mambas.
Two things in this sentence tell us Mitchell isn't indigenous to Arkansas either:
ROTFL
The twig snake is related to the Boom Slang. Another nasty serpent.
Whoever owned these snakes didn't mess around with wimpy species.
I hope this clown doesn't go to Australia, there'll be a bag with a Brownie and and inland taipan sitting by the road.
It's no wonder that The Beverly Hillbillies was one of the highest rated shows in its day, but seriesly, kicking the box is the natural thing to do when it's marked "Live venomous reptile".
Oh, no, I learned the rules of that game from watching Ren and Stimpy.
I was just wondering if we're going to read about Paul Mitchell from Arkansas again sometime down the road...
...You did the right thing, Mr. Mitchell. My only advise to you is, if you find a box full of terrorists with weapons, take them back to work and, naaa, take them to a place to be put in a cage or behind bars...
One of my buddies from college became a herpetologist and spent considerable time in Southern Africa. He would agree 100% with you. Nobody could handle mambas the way they handle cobras. The mamba can come up over their body to strike. They're very fast and lithe, and they are killers. The Green less than the black, just because it is about half the size.
...I've had kingsnakes as pets in the past. Indigenous to the US. There is a photo of a 5ft. kingsnake that swallowed a 6ft. rattlesnake. Pretty good. But, I wouldn't put the king up against some of the foreign species that are here. Any way, Good postin on yer...
Okay, my story pales in comparison but, a week ago, I pulled off the side of the road in Arizona to "commune with nature" (if you know what I mean). I stepped off the blacktop onto some rocks, looked down, and had landed about a half inch from a coiled diamondback. He wasn't terribly big, and I expect I startled him as much as he startled me. Fortunately, he didn't strike me, but he hissed, showed his fangs, and shook that rattle.
It did not cross my mind to kick him, but it sure got my blood pumping.
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