Daily Reptile News

Police decapitate 6-foot snake

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. –

Mark Fitton turned to go back into the house on Lady Slipper Road and take out the last load of material after finishing a kitchen remodeling job.

He put one foot up on the stairs leading from the garage to the entryway, let out a yell and jumped back.

On the steps was a 6-foot snake, a black racer, standing 3 feet in the air, shaking its tail and darting upward toward Fitton’s head.

Fitton is afraid of wasps and hornets, so his boss, Geoffrey Bassett, thought that’s what had startled him.

“Mark, cut it out,” he told him.

But when he saw the reptile, he quit teasing and called animal control.

About 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Bridegewater’s part-time animal control officer had already left for the day, so a police officer responded.

Black racers are the only large, black, smooth-scaled snake in New England, according to the University of Massachusetts.

Adults generally reach 3 to 5  feet in length but can get as long 73 inches.

They are not venomous and normally flee from danger. They can be aggressive when cornered, rustling dry leaves with their tails and biting repeatedly. When captured, they writhe, defecate and spray musk in an attempt to escape.

It took about eight minutes for police to respond to the home.

The snake had by that time fled the garage and hid in a nearby bush.

Out of fear for the four children living in the house, Bassett said, the three men decided to kill the snake.

Basset said the officer used a 6-foot angle iron, an L-shaped metal bar used in construction, that they found in the garage to knock the snake out of the bush. He then hit it several times with the bar until the head dangled from the body. Using a hand saw to remove the head, the men placed the carcass in a construction bag and put the bag in the trunk of the police cruiser.

Bridgewater police were not immediately available for comment.

“In an instance like that, if (the snake) is in the open … we just tell people to stay away from it and let it go about its way,” dispatcher Lance Wager of the Massachusetts Environmental Police said. “When people are around it, that’s where you get the aggressive behavior. … The moment you give it space, it’s going to go wherever it was headed to begin with. … Just don’t bother it, and it won’t bother you.”

Wagner said there are no hard-and-fast rules governing what an officer should do in such a situation.

“It’s a judgment call, absolutely. Especially if there’s pets around and people can get injured,” Wagner said. “It’s a fast snake. It’s quick. They are a little bit more aggressive than your average garter snake. You’d be best to stay away.”

Snakes invade British prison

A British prison is being invaded by snakes, which are scaling up the prison walls to “soak up some sun”, a media report said on Saturday.

One inmate was bitten by an adder, Britain’s only venomous snake. The incident has been reported from the Verne prison in southwestern England, The Australian reported.

Prison guards have posted signs warning the 600 inmates that snakes “are falling from the ramparts into the prison”.

The bitten inmate said he thought the small animal approaching him was a worm, but realised it too late that it was a baby adder with its mother not far behind.

Adder bites are not fatal for adults but require immediate, painful treatment.

Man Killed by King Cobra Bite – Attack Kills Kendrapada’s Snake Man

A man has been killed in a King Cobra attack. Adelaide Now reports Rajkishore Pani, 62, who earned the moniker “Kendrapada’s snake man” for his work with reptiles, was attacked when he went to rescue a King Cobra at a location in Garadapur village, on India’s east coast.

A wiki entry reveals the “King Cobra is fierce, agile, and can deliver a large quantity of highly potent venom in a single bite.”

It is one of the most dangerous and feared Asiatic snakes and can grow to over eighteen feet long and is the world’s longest venomous snake.

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One official compared the death to that of the Crocodile Hunter.  “The incident is akin to the death of famous Australian conservationist Steve Irwin in September 2006. Irwin was killed after he was attacked by a stingray while shooting for a TV program undersea,” said Sudhanshu Parida, secretary of the district unit of People for Animals, reports the Times of India.

The secretary added: “He had rescued a king cobra from a neighbour’s brick kiln even as his son’s marriage ceremony was going on. But the snake suddenly attacked him.”

Residents aid in capture of snake

The 10-foot python might have slipped away, had it not been for quick-thinking neighbors.

People in the Ferguson Township neighborhood around Linn Street had been on alert since police warned Monday that the snake had somehow slithered away from its wooden cage in the driveway of a Linn Street home.

It was not until Wednesday evening that the surreptitious snake reappeared and was captured in a yard on Harris Street.

“It took a lot of time and much consternation amongst the community,” township Police Chief Diane Conrad said. “We received many phone calls from people concerned about safety.”

Conrad said police took the snake Thursday morning to Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland in Allenwood, which agreed to adopt it.

Eric Bowman, of Harris Street, suspected the snake might be around when he went outside Wednesday evening and noticed there weren’t any squirrels out. The newspaper he uses as a cover in his backyard garden had been disturbed.

“I was really frustrated because a bunch of stuff had been moved around,” Bowman said. He told his roommate, “I bet it’s that snake.”

His dog, a beagle, seemed uneasy too, growling from inside the house. Bowman said he went through the house, opened the front door and saw a couple in a car, rolling down a window.

They’d seen the snake in a nearby yard and were trying to track it.

Then he saw the snake. Bowman called police, then encouraged the people who were turning up to form a semi-circle around the yard, to contain the

snake.

“I didn’t want it to leave,” Bowman said.

Police arrived, and the owner of the snake was able to get the animal back in a cage, even though, Bowman said, the snake was “bolting around like lightning.”

Police took the snake into custody and held it in an animal cage at the station until it could be taken to Reptiland.

Conrad said her office is looking at applicable laws to determine whether charges should be filed against the snake’s owner.

The python, which is nonvenomous and hunts by strangling its prey, had gone missing on June 18, but was recovered by its owner the next day, before being reported missing Monday.

Conrad said keeping an exotic animal is not allowed under the zoning in that residential district.

Policy mix-up separates girl and pet turtle at airport

Ten-year-old Carley Helm feared her brand-new pet turtle was doomed, the victim of confusion over airline policies regarding the transportation of reptiles.

But thanks to some scrambling by AirTran Airways officials, it made a safe journey from Atlanta to General Mitchell International Airport on Thursday afternoon.

And yes, Carley is sure it’s the same turtle — she can tell by the small white dot below its nose.

After visiting their father in Atlanta, Carley and her two sisters were traveling home Tuesday with the tiny reptile, named Neytiri after the leading lady in the blockbuster “Avatar.” With the turtle in its container, they made it through security, aboard the AirTran aircraft and to their seats in the cabin of the aircraft — showing off Neytiri along the way. No one raised any questions.

However, as the plane began to taxi on the runway, the pilot announced it was turning back because a turtle was onboard, violating Federal Aviation Administration policy. The FAA prohibits reptiles and most animals onboard commercial aircrafts — with the exception of dogs, cats and household birds in approved containers that fit below the seat, said AirTran spokesman Christopher White.

“Reptiles are in no form allowed onboard for safety reasons,” White said. “They are very, very commonly known to carry salmonella.”

“I know policies need to be followed, but (AirTran) should make sure their employees know what the policies are,” her mother, Tracy Helm, said Thursday.

Back at the gate, the girls asked if the airline could keep the turtle until their dad — who was on his cell phone and rushing back to the airport — could pick it up, said their mother. They were told that was not possible, but they could catch a later flight for free.

One of her sisters, Rebecca Helm, 22, opted to deposit the small container with Neytiri into a garbage can next to Gate C2 and told her dad to look for it there and rescue it. When he arrived, the can was empty, and he was told the garbage had probably already been emptied.

Notified of the situation, AirTran officials immediately began contacting everyone who had worked near that gate Tuesday, White said. It turned out an AirTran ramp supervisor had rescued Neytiri from the trash and given the tiny reptile to another employee, who took it home to her 5-year-old son, White said.

A happy return

The employee who had Neytiri returned the turtle.

Neytiri made the trip Thursday to Milwaukee in the cargo of a Delta Air Lines flight because AirTran only transports luggage.

The turtle’s flight did have one last glitch, but this one was common to all air travelers: an hour-and-a-half delay.

UPDATED: Missing Python Caught In Ferguson Township, Near State College

A pet python reported missing Monday in Ferguson Township was captured Wednesday evening, township police said.

It was caught one street away from the 1400 block of Linn Street, where it escaped sometime between Saturday and Monday, according to police reports. Linn Street is in the residential Overlook Heights area, close to the State College borough line.

The 10-foot snake was taken into police custody without incident, police said.

Township police Chief Diane Conrad has said authorities aren’t sure how the reptile got loose. She understands that it was being held in an enclosure in a residential driveway, she said.

Police had advised all Centre Region residents to keep an eye out for the snake, a non-venomous constrictor.

Victim of gator bite is in fair condition

An environmental scientist had his jaw broken during an alligator attack while snorkeling in the Silver River Tuesday but was otherwise recovering from the attack Wednesday.


Peter Butt was in fair condition Wednesday and is expected to make a full recovery from a bite by the 11 1/2-foot reptile, said Wes Skiles, owner of Karst Environmental Services, an Alachua County firm that Butt and Skiles started in 1987.

“He is expected to make a full recovery,” Skiles said. “It was a completely out-of-nowhere attack. It was just bam.”

The attack happened about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday as Butt, 54, was checking water samples when the alligator attacked, biting him in the neck.

Butt was flown by helicopter to Shands Hospital at the University of Florida. A trapper worked with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to locate the alligator Tuesday night, after which the 500-pound reptile was killed.

In addition to the broken jaw, Butt had cuts and bruises from the bite, according to the Shands statement.

Butt was working on the Silver River with a colleague, Tom Morris, as part of Karst’s ongoing work concerning water quality and the aquifer.

Morris had checked water samples in that area just a short time before Butt did. Morris called for help when the gator attacked.

There was speculation Wednesday as to the factors that might have contributed to Butt’s encounter with the alligator. But those familiar with gators suspect bad luck was the primary factor.

The attack, which occurred outside the Silver Springs attraction, had no correlation with alligator mating season, which starts in mid-April and lasts until around mid-July, according to Lindsey Hord, an alligator biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and a coordinator for the agency’s statewide Nuisance Alligator Program. Likewise, he said there is no factual basis for the notion that alligators display aggression because of territoriality.

Joy Hill, a spokeswoman for the FWC, said Butt is an experienced diver and had been coming to the same site for a few months.

“You can be careful and experienced and still get [bit],” she said. “Wild animals are unpredictable.”

Swimming at dusk, at night and early in the morning can put people at risk because those are alligator feeding times. However, Butt was snorkeling at around 5 p.m., so Hill said she thinks it was just bad luck in this case.

FWC’s policy is to remove any unprovoked alligators that have endangered a human’s life, Hill said. Those alligators are dubbed “nuisance” after they have bitten someone.

FWC’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program issues a permit to remove a nuisance alligator after evaluating the report of the attack.

“We value human life over the alligators,” Hill said. “And there are no shortages of the alligators.”

There are about 1.3 million alligators in Florida, according to the FWC website. Of the 517 recorded alligator bites that have occurred since 1948, just 22 were deadly.

The total number includes unprovoked and provoked bites; the latter includes bites that happened while alligators were being handled or intentionally harassed. The last fatal bite was recorded in 2007.

“It’s very unlikely to get bitten by the alligator at any time,” said Hord, the alligator biologist. “Alligators are not something people should have an irrational fear of.”

After the alligator attacked Butt, it stayed in the same place in the Silver River until Jerry Ziegler and Al Roberts, gator trappers for the FWC, arrived a couple of hours later.

By not leaving, the 11 1/2-foot-long reptile showed no fear of humans, which suggested that the alligator was accustomed to being around people, Hill said.

Most of the time, alligators stay in the same place after an attack, Hord said. He said alligators become more habitual over time when exposed to people who don’t threaten them. Feeding the alligators speeds up the habitual behavior and is illegal.

Ziegler, a licensed nuisance alligator trapper, said he and his partners, Roberts and Will Parker, sold the meat and hide to B&W Meats, a processing facility in Hawthorne, soon after they trapped and killed the alligator.

Ziegler, who has been catching alligators since August 2009, said this trapping wasn’t much different from others he has done. The trappers set up bait for the alligator and caught the animal pretty quickly.

“We go out after gators all the time,” he said. “It’s what we do.”

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