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9News Special Report: Snake In A Box
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by tigers9 on July 23, 2007
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Harrison is Carol Baskin of Ohio.
Z
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http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=09c295a5-7993-411b-8b0f-d26bab793e4d
Jul 24, 2007 12:57 AM
Posted By: Neil Relyea
Channel 9 owns an Egyptian Cobra. You heard right: Cobra; one of the deadliest snakes in the world.
We did what more and more people, perhaps your neighbors, are doing.
We found a snake, bought it and had it shipped right to us a day later.
Our goal: to show you just how dangerous these animals are. One of the many lessons we learned from our snake in the box.
Tim Harrison, Outreach for Animals:
"Actually this is not a bad job of packaging a snake."
Right off the bat, we got a lesson in venomous snakes from Tim Harrison, whose animal rescue includes some of the world's deadliest snakes.
He had epinephrine sticks, in case someone got bit.
And he made it clear the snake we bought was nothing to play with.
Tim Harrison, Outreach for Animals:
"The Egyptian Cobra can be a very aggressive snake."
Minutes later, our Egyptian Cobra proved Harrison right.
Tim Harrison, Outreach for Animals:
"Stay down! Stay down! Okay, stay back, guys! Stay back!"
Harrison got the snake under control. But then, he's done this before.
Tim Harrison, Outreach for Animals:
"Anybody who would've gotten this snake and didn't have any experience will probably be going to the emergency room right now."
You'll be amazingly, incredibly and disturbingly surprised to know just how easy it was for us to get our Egyptian Cobra. All we had to do was go online.
We found a website with a dizzying catalog of venomous snakes for sale – from nearly every corner of the globe.
We chose our snake, gave our credit card number, and the cobra came $150 and 24-hours later, no questions asked.
It came by plane.
Snake sellers often ship them on cargo jets.
Ours came on a Delta passenger jet, bringing to mind a certain popular movie.
Damien Oxier, Arrowhead Reptile Rescue:
"Snakes on a plane. Could happen."
Damien Oxier runs a reptile rescue organization.
While our cobra came in a crate that met airline security standards, there were signs he tried to get out – bloodying himself in the process.
Oxier says not every shipper is as scrupulous as ours.
Damien Oxier, Arrowhead Reptile Rescue:
"The real issue is the guy who is sending it in a plain cardboard box, it's not packaged properly. It's in a small bag with a hole in the corner, it's liable to get out and nobody's the wiser it's in there."
But who would order these animals in the first place?
Tim Harrison says they're people who watch too much, "Crocodile Hunter".
Oxier says they're people like Alexandria Hall in North College Hill, killed three years ago when her viper bit her.
Damien Oxier, Arrowhead Reptile Rescue:
"They get them because they think it's cool. There's an adrenaline junkie aspect to it, like jumping out of an airplane, or climbing a rock wall.
"Unfortunately, it takes one slip and one mistake and that's all you need. You're in trouble."
Big trouble, says, Dr. Edward Otten, head of the toxicology department at University Hospital, especially with bites from the exotic snakes we found on online.
Dr. Edward Otten, University Hospital:
"They may have some pain associated with it. You don't have the swelling and redness and things that you see with the other types of snakes, all of a sudden, you stop breathing."
A University of Florida study finds more than 7,000 venomous snake bites each year in the United States, 15 of them fatal.
That's why the American Veterinary Medical Association and other groups oppose the ownership of venomous snakes.
The federal government has left it up to individual states and cities to decide.
Cleveland, Cincinnati and Dayton ban the snakes. The State of Ohio doesn't.
A proposed house bill would require permits and annual inspections for owners.
But Oxier says most won't submit to that process.
Damien Oxier, Arrowhead Reptile Rescue:
"They don't want anyone to know they're there. They're afraid they'll be taken. They're afraid they're gonna be legally held accountable and be charged."
If Oxier's right, snakes will remain a deadly secret in your neighbor's home.
And the experts will keep trying to get the word out.
Tim Harrison, Outreach for Animals:
"And that's why I write books, that's why I do interviews. That's why I'm doing this with Channel 9, is to keep people from having these in their homes."
And what about our snake?
It's living at a snake sanctuary.
There they extract venom from snakes daily to make anti-venom and for pharmaceutical research.
It turns out venom from various snakes may benefit future Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lupus patients, to name a few.
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RE: 9News Special Report: Snake In A Box
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by richardduckworth on July 24, 2007
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they showed the glades herp website and i sent them an email giving them a head's up on it just in case they were NOT the one who sold the snake to whomever officially bought it. i was at the facility in january and didn't notice anyone using singular, holey bags and oversized, uninsulated boxes. i know a lot of things are done incorrectly when rob is gone sometimes, mostly by the younger guys getting in their hours.
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RE: 9News Special Report: Snake In A Box
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by tigers9 on July 24, 2007
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Yeah, I noticed their website too.
News admitted it was properly packaged, no law was broken, no epidemic of snakes on planes killing people, what the hell is this report all about? I guess it showed Ohio is still the land of the free and should be kept that way, what a waste of time , propaganda, scare mongering, gee, we have wild venomous snakes all over this country, get a life News peopel and hypocritical fellow exotric owners with big trucks.
I am sick of reports going 'what iff' somebody sent it in card board box, well, either nobody is doing it or many r doing it and result is the same, no snake atatcks on planes, and if there is one, remember the phrase form the movie 'snakes on a plane": "TIME IS TISSUE".
Z
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