Posted on 08/23/2005 11:43:23 AM PDT by girlangler
In Jefferson, snake bites the hand that tries to save it Wednesday, August 17, 2005 BY BILL SWAYZE Star-Ledger Staff Stephen Sodones spotted it along the edge of Route 23 in Jefferson, a snake just starting its precarious slide to the other side of the highway.
So the 62-year-old animal lover picked it up, hoping to carry it to safety. But in doing so, Sodones quickly learned one of nature's more important facts: Snakes bite.
What bit Sodones three times on the arm Monday night was a copperhead, which can grow to 4 feet and have fangs like hypodermic needles. No one is quite sure how big this one was.
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Sodones, who lives in the Newfoundland section of Jefferson, remained hospitalized last night in the intensive care unit at Chilton Memorial Hospital in Pompton Plains. His condition was listed as critical, but improving, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Sodones was given an antivenin intravenously, and is expected to be fine, said Steven Marcus, medical director at New Jersey Poison Information and Education System.
Some say Sodones could have fared much worse.
"If you had to be bit by some venomous snake, you'd want it to be a copperhead," said Joe Abene, venomous snake expert at the Bronx Zoo. "Most people do not have to go to the hospital."
Copperheads get their name from the copper-like hue of the head and are fairly common in the Jefferson area. They account for more cases of venomous snake bites than any other snakes, but their venom is the least toxic of the species, according to the Web site snakesandfrogs.com.
What prompted Sodones to pick up the snake in the first place remains a question to police, authorities said.
But to those who know Sodones, his actions made perfect sense.
A animal lover, Sodones lives alone with a white long-haired cat named "Old Cat." He likes to feed bears and stop traffic so ducks can walk across the road. Not too long ago, he tried to revive a bumblebee, keeping it in the palm of his hand with some water until it buzzed away two hours later, said John Bross, a friend and neighbor.
"One time, I stepped on a spider and he wouldn't talk to me for two days," Bross said. "Steve's got a problem with animals. He loves them too much."
Friends said Sodones routinely takes walks along Route 23, not far from his house. At about 8:30 Monday night, he spotted the reptile in the road. When he picked it up, it attacked him, police said.
At first, Sodones didn't think much about the bites. But about four hours later, when he felt woozy, Sodones called 911, police said.
By then, the snake was long gone.
"It was a good thing to do, but the wrong way to do it. I wouldn't recommend anyone touch a venomous snake unless they know what they are doing," Abene said. "What the heck was he thinking?"
Staff writer Jordan Doronila contributed to this report.
These people collected live aligators, desert tortoises, all sorts of lizards, anoles, and skinks, and had at least 15 snakes in herpetariums in the house they lived in with their youngest child. They were very nice people.
But Gary would do some really dumb things,...but so did I.
Some anti-hunters were protesting the start of hunting season in a certain southern state -- they were interviewing each other on video for the local MSM....
Right in the middle of the sentence about the peace, tranquility and harmony of the natural order -- a barred owl swoops down about 20 yards behind the interview scene -- and skewers an adult cottontail with its talons --
The MSM reporterette and the on-duty PETA spokes-animal tried hard to ignore the disturbance..... BUT
The brief on-scene dust-up, the commotion of the takeoff that followed, and especially the awful screams of the doomed hare as the owl carried it away... were a true slice of poetic justice for the fuzzy-wuzzy tree-hugger enviro-weenie jihadis.....
It was a scream -- to say the least....
He's still alive?
*nevermind*
You were never tempted to put food out on his porch Thursday and Friday night?
Whew, you guys are a lot braver than me. I'm an outdoors type person -- have been quail, turkey, deer, bear, dove and even alligator hunting once, and I love to fish.
But I am terrified of snakes and spiders.
Look at one of my former comments on
this
thread and I mentioned living in Woodville Texas and finding several copperheads in my yard. One day was picking up some pine needles and a baby copperhead fell out of it.
I've been all over that part of Texas, used to live on a lake there.
Do you think this clown would taste funny to bears?
---
Only the brain, which is obviously spoiled.
I would have LOVED to have seen that.
One of my mentors, who was an accomplished outdoor writer in his day and my editor at one time, was covering the story when they opened back up the alligator season in southwest Louisiana in the early 1980s.
He was in the swamp on a boat with a bunch of members of the press and environmental organizations, many opposed to opening the season back up, and he happened to catch a photo that won a National Wildlife Federation award.
He said they came around a bend and all the AR wackos and press were oowing and aweing over an egret. He JUST HAPPENED to have his camera on the bird when a big old gator suddenly came crashing out of the water and ate the dang egret.
"Well, what else could happen?"
We could give the guy a hammer and see if he knocks some sense into his head.
...I VERY nearly sprayed some iced coffee when I saw that graphic in post 82!
Umm, wanna send your local bear to his house? I hear soup's on...
LOL! I love those little emoticons. They're sooo cute.
Well it probably wasn't the picking it up as much as the guy talking baby talk to the snake that pissed it off
Morris Coujnty, NJ.
Jefferson Twp. is roughly bordered by State Rt 23 on the North and State Rt 15 on the South, the Sussex Co. line on the West and Kinnalon on the East...
(There, I bet it's now plain as day, eh?)
When I was about 10, I captured a garden snake and kept it in a milk carton for a few days. It soon became apparent that snakes were even less affectionate than cats, so I released it back to the vacant lot were I found it. Was this guy never ten years old? (BTW, I managed not to get bitten.)
I only found out after the fact. The Community newsletter listed it after his 3rd conviction. His house is only about 1/8 mile away, but we're heavily forested here and I can hardly see my neighbors house 100 feet away much less that wanker's. Not to mention this whole area is on the side of a mountain so from one lot to the next it may rise or fall 30 feet
For future reference few things attract bears better that burnt honeycomb...
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