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MIAMI HERALD (Florida) 08 October 06 2 cobra-bite reports in 1 night (Diana Moskovitz)
Antivenin specialists responded to calls about cobra bites in Broward and Palm Beach counties Sunday night.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's antivenin unit responded to the unrelated calls, fire rescue Lt. Shanti Hall said.
The Broward call came in about 7:30 p.m., Hall said, and the Palm Beach County just after 8 p.m.
Hall could not provide details about the incidents.
''The most notable thing is that we had two cobra bites on the same day at about the same time,'' Hall said.
One antivenin specialist went to Plantation General Hospital. The second went to JFK Medical Center near Lake Worth.
The patients' conditions were unknown Sunday night.
2 cobra-bite reports in 1 night

One was a cobra bite, one was not. One of the bites was reported as a cobra bite, but further investigation revealed that it was not a cobra bite.

Oh, come one people. Is anyone in Florida not aware that FWC is in the process of considering changes to the venomous regulations? Wouldn't this be a good time for everyone to be MORE careful than usual?

(Yes, I'm sure that some in the media are also aware of this and are looking for every story they can find, but we don't have to help them.)

Larry,

I don't think that the news is aware of anything 15 minutes after it happens. They are on to the next "earth-shattering" story. If it is a slow news day and you have an encounter with something potentially deadly, it will be on the news. The best you can hope for is something more potentially violent, morbid, or bizarre happens somewhere else in the world - best if involves a number of people. That makes for better musical accompaniment...

SUN-SENTINEL (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) 10 October 06 Cobra bites Palm Beach County snake keeper during feeding (Nancy L. Othón )
Just as he presumably had done hundreds of times before, a Palm Beach County man fed his red spitting cobra snake Sunday night, but this time he was bitten in the hand, authorities said.
In about an hour, Lt. Charles Seifert of Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue's antivenin unit had hopped onto a Trauma Hawk helicopter and taken the antivenin to JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, where the man was treated and expected to fully recover.
Seifert said the man, whose name he could not release, is licensed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to own the snake. The man, 39, has worked with snakes for 10 years without an incident, Seifert said.
It's uncommon for a snake keeper to be bitten, he said, though a Plantation man was bitten by his pet black Pakistani cobra Oct. 2.
"Unfortunately it's the keepers who get the most attention because they're the guys who have the cobras, but they are not the biggest problem," Seifert said.
Most victims of bites are 20- to 40-year-old men who see a snake outside and have no fear of it, so they try to kill it, Seifert said.
"The biggest message that we could get out is if you see a snake, leave it alone," he said. "You put yourself in more harm by trying to kill it or catch it."
The antivenin unit responded to 250 bite calls last year and in just five of those calls, the victims were licensed to own snakes, Seifert said. Those incidents include any type of bite in which the unit was called. Antivenin was given in 96 of those calls, Seifert said.
Most commonly, the Miami-Dade unit uses antivenin for water moccasin and pygmy rattler bites, Seifert said. The unit, which is the only fire department in the country that keeps a supply of antivenin, has 38 types on hand, including antivenin for scorpions and poisonous spiders.
Sunday was busy for the antivenin unit, which also responded to a call in the Miramar area when a woman was bitten by a water moccasin as she was gardening, Seifert said. She did not require antivenin because she had been wearing gloves and it was a "dry bite," he said.
An untreated cobra bite can be deadly. Reaction to a bite can include paralysis, nausea and difficulty in breathing. Cobras are native to Africa and Asia.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pcobra10oct10,0,5908920.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

SUN-SENTINEL (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) 10 October 06 Glove protects Miramar woman from poisonous bite from water moccasin (Nancy L. Othón and Ihosvany Rodriguez )
All that stood between a Miramar woman and a poisonous water moccasin were a pair of gardening gloves.
And they worked.
The woman was gardening Sunday night when she was bitten, but she did not suffer any serious injuries because she was wearing gloves and it was a "dry bite," said Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue Lt. Charles Seifert.
He is part of the agency's antivenin unit, which was called to Broward County in case the woman, whose name was not released, needed antivenin.
Luckily, she didn't, but it was a different story for a Palm Beach County man who was nipped in the hand while feeding his red spitting cobra later that night.
Seifert said the man, who is in his late 30s but whose name he could not release, is licensed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to own the snake.
He has worked with snakes for 10 years without an incident, Seifert said.
The antivenin unit hopped onto a Trauma Hawk helicopter and delivered antivenin to JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, where the man was treated. He is expected to recover.
If untreated, cobra bites can be lethal or cause paralysis, nausea and difficulty breathing. The hooded snakes are native to Africa and Asia.
It's uncommon for a snake keeper to be bitten, Seifert said.
Still, it was the second cobra bite reported in Broward in less than a week. On Oct. 2, a Plantation man was bitten by his pet black Pakistani cobra, which he had a license to own.
Miami-Dade County Fire-Rescue rushed antivenin to him at Plantation General Medical Center, but he recovered without it.
"Unfortunately it's the keepers who get the most attention because they're the guys who have the cobras, but they are not the biggest problem," Seifert said.
More often, most bite victims are 20- to 40-year-old men who see a snake outside and try to kill it, Seifert said.
"The biggest message that we could get out is if you see a snake, leave it alone," he said. "You put yourself in more harm by trying to kill it or catch it."
The antivenin unit responded to 250 bite calls last year and in just five of those calls, the victims were licensed to own snakes, Seifert said. Those incidents include any type of bite for which the unit was called. Antivenin was given in 96 of the calls, Seifert said.
Most commonly, the Miami-Dade unit uses antivenin for water moccasin and pygmy rattler bites, Seifert said.
The unit, which is the only fire department in the country that keeps an extensive supply of antivenin, has 38 types on hand, including antivenin for scorpions and poisonous spiders.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-ccobra10oct10,0,3687538.story?coll=sfla-news-broward