ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE (Fayetteville) 15 May 04 Driver checks box, rouses cobra (C.S. Murphy)

A lot of people would walk the other way if they spotted a wooden box with the words "Live venomous reptile" scrawled on the side — but not Paul Mitchell.

Mitchell was driving east of downtown Little Rock on Friday afternoon when he spotted such a box in the grass near Sixth and Byrd streets. He stopped his pickup and sauntered over. "When you see something like that, you want to look and see what it is," explained Mitchell of Little Rock. "I went over and kicked the box."

Mitchell, an electrician with IK Electric, peeked inside and was startled by the box’s squirming contents.

A closer look revealed a writhing cloth bag and the unmistakable form of a full-hooded cobra preparing to strike. "I was like ‘Hot dog! That thing is big!’"

A small group huddled around the box as word of its discovery reached nearby businesses. "That box was sitting there yesterday," exclaimed Bobby Patterson, an employee of nearby Consolidated Electric. "That was close enough for me. I didn’t want to see any more."

The box contained four highly poisonous African snakes, and no lifesaving antivenin exists in Arkansas to treat bites from such reptiles.

Since Mitchell didn’t have a magic flute handy to charm the snakes, he tossed the box into the bed of his pickup and headed to the Little Rock Zoo. "I was just going to take it back to work and kill it, but I figure cobras aren’t indigenous to Arkansas," Mitchell said. "I knew the zoo would have a snake handler."

Randal Berry, the zoo’s reptile keeper, accepted the snakes out of concern for public safety. The zoo does not, he stressed, typically accept animals from the public.

Berry identified the snakes, saying the box contained a 14-inch-long twig snake; an East African bright green mamba that measured 6 feet long; a 4-foot black mamba; and a 5-foot forest cobra.

The cobra, Berry said, was "extremely aggressive and squirrelly," repeatedly rearing its hooded head as Berry tried to pull it out of the cloth sack.

Zoo officials haven’t decided what to do with the snakes. "I don’t want it here," he said with a laugh. "He’s not a nice guy."

Berry estimates that the snakes are collectively worth about $1,000. The reptiles were in good condition despite spending a few days in a wooden box on the side of a road. "We’ve had nice cool weather lately," he said.

The snakes’ origin is a mystery.

The box was labeled with the handwritten words "Live venomous reptile," but it bore no other markings or clues about the content’s intended destination. "We are not missing any of our snakes," said Barbara Wagner, spokesman for the downtown Museum of Discovery. "They are all accounted for... all safe and snug in their little homes. And we do not have any venomous snakes."

The zoo’s collection doesn’t include the snake varieties found in the box, Berry said, and no snakes are missing from the zoo.

Cindy Dawson, assistant city attorney and zoo docent, said chances are good that the snakes didn’t legally enter the city. "The sale, possession, maintenance or keeping of venomous reptiles are not lawful in the city," she said.

Some exceptions are made for the zoo, research and educational facilities, and circuses and carnivals, she said.

City ordinances allow someone who has permission from the Little Rock Zoo director and who is a member of the Arkansas Herpetological Society to keep venomous snakes, Dawson said.

Zoo Director Mike Blakely said Friday that he has never granted permission for venomous snakes to be kept in Little Rock.

Ed Davis, Little Rock’s animal services manager, said he has received no calls recently reporting unusual snake sightings. He’s hopeful that all of the exotic snakes are accounted for. No empty bags were found in or around the box. "If it has been out there for two days, and no one has seen anything, odds are we aren’t going to," he said. "We’ll let our guys know about it though. I’ll definitely put them on notice that if they get a call for one of these, it may not be a joke."
Driver checks box, rouses cobra

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