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Green mamba bite victim responding well to treatme
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by tigers9 on August 20, 2009
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Video
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sfl-snake-bite-hollywood-bn082009,0,612848.story
Cable worker bitten by venomous green mamba snake in Hollywood
Green mamba bite victim responding well to treatment
• Related
• Al Cruz, of the Miami-Dade fire department, talks about the man who may have been bitten by a green mamba snake.
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• Fires
• Animals
By Alexia Campbell and Rafael A. Olmeda South Florida Sun Sentinel
6:59 p.m. EDT, August 20, 2009
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HOLLYWOOD - The search is on for a venomous snake that bit a cable worker in Hollywood Thursday morning, officials said.
The worker, whose name was not released, was outside a small apartment building on the 2300 block of Taylor Street when he leaned against a small coconut tree and was bitten on the arm by a green mamba snake native to Africa.
"There's not a shadow of a doubt that it was a green mamba," said Capt. Ernie Jillson, who heads the Venom Response Unit in Miami-Dade County. Officials at first weren't sure what kind of snake had bitten the man, who was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital and monitored for symptoms.
He was shown pictures of various snakes and picked out the green mamba, said Hollywood Fire Rescue Division Chief Mark Steele.
When the victim experienced numbness, tingling and drooping eyelids, among other symptoms of the neurotoxic venom, officials administered the antivenin, which reversed the effects, Jillson said.
Officials think the snake was illegally purchased off the Internet and either escaped or was released, said Jillson. For anyone other than a trained, licensed professional to even handle the snake is against the law, and no one in Florida has a license to own a green mamba.
The apartment building's owner, Richard Konefal, said he led one animal control officer on a search of all nine units in the building, turning up no evidence that anyone there had been raising the snake.
No children live in the building.
Jillson said it's highly improbable that more than one snake is on the loose; breeding the reptiles in captivity is difficult.
In captivity, green mambas live 10 to 12 years. In the wild, their lifespan is about six years, Jillson said. Based on the description -- a three- to four- foot green snake with a yellowish underbelly -- Jillson estimated the snake that bit the cable worker to be about 3 or 4 years old.
He said green mambas are aggressive and territorial, and this one is likely to stay in the lush backyard garden where the bite took place.
Anyone who sees the snake should not approach it, but should call the Venom Response Unit at 786-331-4443 or 4444, Jillson said.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4694.
Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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RE: Green mamba bite victim responding well to tre
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by CChadwick on August 21, 2009
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"Officials think the snake was illegally purchased off the Internet and either escaped or was released, said Jillson. For anyone other than a trained, licensed professional to even handle the snake is against the law, and no one in Florida has a license to own a green mamba."
Um, k... First off, I LOVE the assumption of Jillson that this was purchased off the internet and is a escape/release... I guess it's IMPOSSIBLE for a snake to make its way over here in a cargo shipment! I guess that has never happened before, i.e. Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, etc (basically every country on the planet)....
Secondly, the GROSSLY mistaken claim that nobody in Florida has a license to own a green mamba really undermines Jillson and his team (they've lost my support). At this very minute E.R.J., located in Florida, has one for sale on Kingsnake.com, lol! These guys I'M SURE would have the necessary permits, as so the other few dozen sellers/collectors that I know of in Florida that possess these. People should be fined/sued, held accountable, for spreading wrong info via the media.... K, I'm done now :)
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RE: Green mamba bite victim responding well to tre
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by Adamanteus70 on August 21, 2009
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Green Mambas do not have yellow bellies. Rough Green snakes do...and 3' is a pretty little Green Mamba...
Any one know of a site that has pictures of the bite wound on this person? I call BS...
I am licensed to own a Green Mamba if I so desire to purchase one...so where do they get this information? Every VR License in Florida permits us to own a Green Mamba...
Ignorance and sensationalism feed the fears.
Paul
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RE: Green mamba bite victim responding well to tre
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by tigers9 on August 21, 2009
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I contacted FWC, the number of licenses issued so far for reptiles of concern is only about 240 owners (this includes pets to businesses), so I would say the compliaance with the new FL registration law is extremely low, likely even lower than compliance with dog registerign which tends to be low , that supposedly 10 or less % of all dogs are licensed/registered.
Z
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RE: Green mamba bite victim responding well to tre
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by Buzztail1 on August 21, 2009
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You need to recontact them and ask about VRL (Venomous Reptile Licences) since they are drastically different than ROC (Reptiles of Concern).
This is FFWCC definition of Reptiles of Concern from their page: http://myfwc.com/RULESANDREGS/Rules_CaptiveCategories.htm#concern
A. Reptiles of Concern - including subspecies and hybrids thereof
1. Burmese python (Python molurus)
2. African rock python (Python sebae)
3. Amethystine python (Morelia amethystinus)
4. Reticulated python (Python reticulatus)
5. Green anaconda (Eunectes murinus)
6. Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus)
The Venomous Reptile License covers:
B. Venomous Reptiles
Native Venomous Reptiles include:
1. Coral snake (Micrurus fulvius)
2. Eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus)
3. Canebrake rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus atricaudatus)
4. Pygmy rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius)
5. Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus)
6. Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)
All other species of venomous reptiles are considered to be nonnative.
From the same page listed above.
R/
Karl
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RE: Green mamba bite victim responding well to tre
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by LarryDFishel on August 21, 2009
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OK, slow down guys. Before we go attacking our friends let's at least wait until we have some idea who said what, which we are obviously not going to get from any news outlet.
I've seen articles so far attributing the statement that no one is licensed to keep green mambas to a) Someone from animal control, b) Ernie and c) "Officials" and that's just in the first 24 hours or so.
I didn't bother to ask Ernie about that point when I talked to him today, but he was at a show this weekend where I had a green mamba on display, so I would be pretty surprised if he said such a thing.
Speaking of which, this green mamba had a quite yellow belly when it was younger. It's around 7-8 years old now and less yellow. It's unusual but not unheard of.
I was skeptical at first and a rough green was the first thing that came to mind, but after talking to someone who helped treat this bite and has treated several known green mamba bites, it's pretty certain that that's what it was.
How it got there is nothing but speculation on anyone's part at this point and probably always will be unless someone admits to losing one.
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