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CINCINNATI ENQUIRER (Ohio) 06 August 03 No such thing as tame deadly snake - Exotic pets 'time bombs waiting to go off' (Janice Morse)
Michael Peterman knew more about exotic snakes than most pet owners know about their cats and dogs.
But Peterman's rhinoceros viper suddenly struck as he fed the animal with a long pair of tongs, the African snake's fangs shooting venom into his hand. Within hours, Peterman, a 48-year-old firefighter in Dayton, Ohio, was pronounced dead at University Hospital on Monday - the Tristate's latest and most tragic example of what can go wrong when people adopt wild or exotic animals as pets.
"This guy had experience handling these animals. He knew exactly what he was doing," said Tim Harrison, a Southwestern Ohio wildlife rescuer who had worked with Peterman to secure several snakes on the loose.
"When someone with all that knowledge and skill dies, that scares people like me - and it should absolutely petrify everyone else."
Even more frightening, Harrison said, is this estimate: One in five American homes has an exotic pet - an animal that doesn't belong in the United States.
"This means there's a possibility that, in your own neighborhood, you can run into something that can kill you, make you ill, or scare the wee-wee out of you," Harrison said.
In a perverse version of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses, Americans seem bent on acquiring the weirdest animals possible, Harrison said, with few laws and little enforcement standing in the way. But as the exotic-pet trade grows, so do the risks - to the owners, health professionals, police and the general public.
In the end, the animals themselves are victims.
"People say they honestly love these animals, but they're loving them to death," Harrison said, "because every one of these animals is going to be put down if there's a problem.''
Earlier this year, the nation's first outbreak of monkeypox, an African illness resembling a milder version of smallpox, was traced to an exotic animal dealer in the Chicago area - a health scare that also affected Butler County. A wallaby bought from the same dealer ended up at a show-and-tell session at a Trenton elementary school.
School and health officials warned the public to watch for signs of infection. Now, almost two months later, the situation remains unresolved.
Patricia Burg, Butler's health department director, said it's a relief that the incubation period has passed, and there have been no additional reports of illness.
However, one person is still undergoing additional tests, Burg said.
Attempts to test the animal for monkeypox were unsuccessful, and Burg is still trying to find out why.
Burg recalled that several years ago at least two lions were being kept in the county as pets. One owner had the attitude, she said, that if it gets to be a problem, we'll give it to the zoo. But zoos reject animals with unknown health histories because they can't risk infecting their populations, Burg said.
She said her department contacted dozens of agencies and found no one willing to adopt one of the lions. She thinks that animal eventually was euthanized.
Many people don't seem to think through the consequences of owning an exotic animal - and may not realize they are illegal in many areas, Burg said. Butler County prohibits anyone from keeping an exotic or wild animal as a pet.
"Obviously, we can't go door to door and see what kind of pets you have," she said, "but people need to know that if we become aware of a situation, we can take action."
In Warren County, authorities have spent untold hours searching for a lion that may be on the loose. On July 2, a Deerfield man reported sightings of the animal.
"As far as whether it exists, we can't say 'Yes' and would never say 'No,' " said Sheriff Tom Ariss, "but we haven't had any other sightings. We haven't heard anything in several weeks."
Harrison, the exotic-animal rescuer, said he knows of four other people who are raising big cats in Warren County - but Ariss wouldn't comment on that report Tuesday, saying people don't have to register their exotic animals with his office.
Harrison said that's part of the problem: There's no way to know who has exotic animals or where they are being kept.
In fact, Harrison said, although he was acquainted with Peterman, the firefighter who died after the snakebite, Peterman never disclosed that he owned "hot" snakes - dangerous, venomous ones.
Some of Peterman's fellow firefighters knew he owned such snakes, said Lacey Calloway, assistant fire chief in Dayton. But they also knew Peterman had been bitten before and survived.
So the 400-member department was stunned by the death of Peterman, the first active-duty Dayton firefighter to die in five years, Calloway said.
"One person commented to me, 'He knew how to handle those things so well,' so they're pretty much in disbelief that one of them bit him with this result," Calloway said.
But the rhino viper's bite is one of the world's most deadly, Harrison said.
Peterman's wife tried driving him to the hospital, Calloway said. But his condition deteriorated quickly; she sought help at a fire station on the way. Fellow firefighters - who knew Peterman - tried to save his life as they took him to Miami Valley Hospital.
Then, Harrison said, Peterman received several doses of antivenin, flown from other locations to Dayton. He was flown to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead by the time an additional supply of antivenin arrived from Miami, Fla.
"I just want to sit down and cry today," Harrison said Tuesday, reflecting on Peterman's death. "I wonder: Why didn't he listen to me?
"Like I tell anyone who has venomous snakes, big cats or large predators: They're all time bombs waiting to go off. There's no such thing as a tamed wild animal."
Exotic pets 'time bombs waiting to go off'

One in five American families owns an exotic pet!? OH NO! HOW COULD THIS POSSIBLY BE!? This is disastrous! I could be attacked by rampaging hamsters or parakeets at any moment!

Yeah, those iggi tail whips can be fatal, ya know!

lol
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~redmom~
My Email
Herps:
1.0 Normal corn snake "Ed"

Others:
1.0 Blue Male Betta fish "'Beta' test"
0.1 White/Lemon/beige splotched and spotted hound mix "Angel"

Human pets:
2.0 Children "Matthew" 7 yrs, "Duncan" > 1 yr
1.0 Hubby "Roger"

no but it hurts, and what if they whip you in the eye? quit being stupid redmom. exotic pets is like a cockatiel, a ferret, a sugar glider and other mammals. not just snakes. they probably used all those as an excuse to say 1 out of 5.

redmom- your annoying after reading only 2 of your posts.

This Tim Harrsion guy needs to take some medication. It is my understanding that the medical reports showed that Peterson had consumed alochol prior to feeding the Rhino. I'm not saying he was drunk, but any alcohol will alter depth perception and slow reaction time. Harrison saying that all exotic pets are gonna be "put down", shows just what kind of "wildlife rescuer" he really is. As far as I can tell the only timebomb in this story was a guy who made a bad decision to try to feed a highly venomous snake after a few drinks.

Last year, I was visiting a friend in Florida. He got talked into bying some kind of primate/monkey thing from a guy in Sandeiago. One day it got out of its box and went running around the yard.

I was dumming the trash when I hear all this screaming and belching and carrying on somethin terrible. This ape thing came running at me, so I climbed a tree to get away. It seemed like the logical thing to do to get away from a monkey. To my astonishment, it started up after me. I pepper-sprayed it then wacked it with a branch and fell out of the tree with a crash. I then leaped onto its back and urinated in its eyes. That seem to wash out most of the pepper spray. The thing fell over and moaned. I took off for the house but it ran after me as if to kill me so I threw a log at it. This is an old trick that I learned from the Indians: they would through a log at a bear which would try to catch it and then they would club it to death. Instead I hit with the riding lawn mower. The scream it let out was terrbile: I'd describe it as sounding likea man being kicked in the balls whle having a cynder block slamd onto his foot.

At that point my friend came running out of the house screaming "oh my good, my monkey!" I told him it tried to kill me but he wouldnt believe me. So he threw me off the propery and I went back and tore up his whole herp collection, I ate the little animals and threw big ones out windows: a bearded dragon ended up impaled on a pine branch outside and I came out covered in blood and diet supplements, then I farted and shuved a ball python down his his throught then force feed him twenty wild-caught Dendrobates. He mutauted into a pile of wood chips.

I grinned and farted as all the light in the world went out good night foaks.