In the march 28 lancaster news paper a story was ran about a 17 year old boy bitten by a west african bush viper. This story ran 8 days after the reptile show in Lititz. The boy was bitten in the finger and they are talking about he may loose it. It also states that the vender who they didn't name said that the snake would only bite and you wouldn't get sick. He spent 9 days in the hospital and his parents said that if they knew that this could have happened they never wuld have gotten the snake for their son. Do you see the 3 major problems with this article.
1) Timing
2) The information the vender gave this family.
3) The fact that they never researched the snake before they bought it.
And to those people that are reading this please consider that I'm a newcomer to venomous snakes and by no means am an expert on anything about them, and these 3 things jumped out at me from the beginning of typing this.
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BAD NEWS FROM PA!!! PLEASE READ
Replies (6)
I spoke to a woman at the last Hamburg show who purchased a juvie atrox for her "mature" 12 year old son. This was done with the knowledge of the vender. The artical did not mention if the 17 yr old misrepresented himself as 18 yrs of age or older in order to obtain the viper,or the vender didn't care.If he said "there have been no recorded fatalities from the bite of a Bush viper" can that be twisted into "not dangerous"? If you check the books on Copperheads ,statements such as "not believed to be able to inflict a fatal bite" sounds rosey but bite photo's and accounts of envenomations don't sound like a "slice of heaven" so to speak!LOL! In my household a honeybee is anoying next door it's run fer the hills maw.Just my .02
dgh
Actually for the sake of not starting anything and keeping the vendors name anonymous, the kid was 17 years old, and his Mom did approve the purchase. The vendor definitly should not have sold the snake to a minor regardless of whether or not it can inflict a serious bite or not. Just like a bee sting, if your reaction is worse than someone else, the bite can proove fatal. A venomous snake is still venomous regardless of how potentially life threatening its venom is, and some people should not keep them. I do agree that the vendor should only be held responsible if he/she knowingly sells a venomous reptile to a minor or where prohibited. If the parent buys it for the minor, and gives it to him as a pet, the parent should be responsible for whatever may happen. The question is who paid for the snake and who picked it up? I do know about this story, and am fully aware of what the story really is and what really happened, however I cannot and will not disclose any info more than what I have said in respect to the vendor. I have done business with him/her and believe it was just a decision that could have been thought about a bit more thoroughly. Lets just see how events like this will effect the rest of us who keep hots.
Chris
I only posted this for that very reason of what is it going to do for the rest of us. The only real problem I had with it was the fact that the press don't need anymore ammo against us snake owners and this will be a very major thing because it was illegal to posess that type of snake in lancaster county, along with a couple of others as well. Honestly I don't really care to know who the vendor was that way in the future I won't be slanted away from them for the bad press this brought on and buy from them.
...and his parents said that if they knew that this could have happened they never wuld have gotten the snake for their son...
Truly an ignorant statement by the parents. ANY and ALL venomoous snakes can send a person to a hospital or even cause fatalities.
This will definitely set a precedent for future shows...
I Live in PA and isn't it illegal to own a Venomous Reptile?...Wait a second...nevermind.. I know in 'Philadelphia' you can not own a venonous reptile but I am not sure about the whole state.
I remember reading awhile ago that some idiot got bit by a gaboon viper here in Philly.They arrested the guy after and charged him with some crimes I do believe.
I found the article online 
http://www.cobras.org/gaboon_bite.htm
