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My heart sank
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by JoeCrotalid on June 11, 2008
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As I was returning home from one of my nightly bike rides/herp trips, I was driving along and came across a beautiful Eastern Diamondback coiled in the middle of the road. I spun my truck around and pulled to the shoulder of the road, and proceeded to get out with my tongs which are always kept in my truck with the intention of moving him from harms way in the road. As I started into the road to retrieve this majestic snake, a car in the other lane seeing the snake swerved towards it striking it and crushing his head.
My heart sank and I actually became sick to my stomach as I witnessed the event in horror. I rushed to the injured snake and pulled him from the road but alas I was too late. He was a young eastern approximately 2 feet long with beautiful markings. It was just such a tragedy to see such a majestic, proud snake destroyed in such a way by some ahole who intentonally swerved to hit it even though he saw me with the tongs approaching the snake.
So I pose this to young DannyD. Herpetology is not just about the keeping of herps, research, etc. but the appreciation of them in the wild and their conservation because when you grow up they may not exist for future generations to enjoy and appreciate. Don't take them for granted. It is fine that you do not enjoy the hobby but don't crucify those of us that do love it-every person has the right to enjoy something and I hope you find that hobby that brings you joy.
With deep sorrow.
Joe
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RE: My heart sank
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by jared on June 11, 2008
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I have chased cars with hook in hand, praying they would stop(furiously). I am saddened to hear it has happened to you,
Jared
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RE: My heart sank
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by pitbulllady on June 12, 2008
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Having personally had this happen to me more than once(having someone deliberately run over a snake in, or on the side of, the road while I was attempting to catch it and move it), I can definitely feel your anger and pain. It makes me wish that all of us could morph in to "Alice"-for those who do not know, Alice was an elderly woman, a friend of mine several years ago, before her passing. Alice was, to put it mildly, "full-figured", and probably weighed over 300 pounds, not all of it fat, either, as one redneck driver was unfortunate enough to find out. Alice had a pond on her property near Rock Hill, SC, and a resident Black Rat Snake that lived on the property. Since Alice bred dogs as a hobby, like all animal breeders, she had to contend with rodents getting into her dog food and show supplies, that is, until the snake moved in, so she was quite fond of that snake. One day, as she was mowing her front lawn, the snake started to cross the road from the adjacent woods, heading for the pond, and at the same time, a car-load of what she described as "redneck men" came driving down the road. Alice stopped the lawn mower and went running towards the road to try and stop them so the snake could safely cross, but they sped up when the driver spotted the snake, and ran over it, intentionally. Not only that, but the driver then put the car in reverse to run over the snake again, only by now, Alice was blocking him. He rolled down his window to yell at her to get the ^%$# out of the way so he could run over the snake again, whereupon, according to Alice's husband(who'd come running out of the house, hearing a ruckus in the road), some heated words were exchanged, including the driver referring to Alice as a "fat *female dog*". Alice responded by grabbing him by the throat, and pulling him through the window of his car, and proceded to pound his head into the pavement with her very large fist, while holding him down with her foot. His companions, fearing for their own safety, abandoned the car and took off through the woods(such brave men). Alice's husband had to literally pull her off the guy, whose head resembled a raw roast beef by this point, and after staggering to his feet, without a word, he made it back to his car and drove away. No lawsuit was filed, no police report apparently made; more than likely, the guy was too ashamed to have had his butt whupped so thoroughly by an old woman that he never told anyone, and made his friends(IF he ever caught up with them)swear to never tell what had actually happened to him! Every time I think of the idiots who deliberately run over snakes, I wish that Alice could just materialize right there, and give them the butt-whuppin' they so deserve. It might not change their attitudes about snakes, but after enough of them wound up on the receiving end of her huge fists, it might make more than a few have serious reservations about running over one, if for no other reason than the potential for "negative feedback".
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RE: My heart sank
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by atwageman on June 12, 2008
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This scenario happened to me as well on more than one occasion. Just pisses me off to no ends. About 3 years ago I did go as so far as to chase the driver down. The driver turned out to be a out of state tourist of all things who was lost! He hit a coral snake! Him and his family were lost out in the middle of nowhere. I let him know real fast that being a moron out of state in the middle of swamp land was no place for him. He had turned down a dead end road trying to get away from me. That was his first mistake. His second mistake was not carrying a firearm. He didn't make a 3rd mistake becuase I told him the next time we would re-create the movie Deliverence! At that point his wife and kids started to cry and he was shaking like he was going thru heroin withdrawls. I let him leave unharmed and figured he learned his lesson. I'm sure they were nervous wrecks the remainder of their vacation.
That was the one inceident where I can honestly say I lost my own mind for a minute.
Squel like pig!
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RE: My heart sank
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by JoeCrotalid on June 13, 2008
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Yeah! I must have looked like some crased lunatic to other passing drivers standing in the middle of the road with my arms in the air holding my tongs yelling and cursing at this car as it it drove down the road out of sight.
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