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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

"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."

... and I doubt he ever will either.

Cobras lose in texas and arkansas? I see the door slowly closing. Seems like news is getting worse and worse. Thanks for keeping us updated on related press items.

Dave

I don't remember ever hearing about the city of Little Rock having such ordinances. I live about 1.5 hrs from Little Rock myself. I know LR has a law saying that venomous can't be sold within city limits, but all the times I've called Arkansas Game and Fish, I've never been given any information such as that. Maybe I should give them a call now though and make sure nothing has changed. Living so close to where all this crap happened only makes me worry about the entire state passing a ban on all hot snakes. Also, if LR really has an ordinance saying that no hot snakes can be possessed within the city limits, that makes it slightly difficult to go to the airport and pick up a shipment without breaking that law. I guess the fact that the guy who got these animals was killed somewhere around there also makes me think twice about going there to pick up snakes.

It turns out that that guy from Scotland, no telling what he was doing here, and died from something other than snakebite. I'm thinking he was mugged somewhere close to the airport and killed. Whoever took his stuff didn't want to keep the snakes so they dropped them off. Anyway, scary, scary stuff. I just hope our legislators don't use this as ammunition to pass some kind of ban.
-Chance

I am not a lawyer, but typically you can pick up venomous snakes from an airport that was shipped via airlines meeting IATA criteria. That is as long as the destination of delivery is for a legal area. For example: It is typically legal to pick up animals in a state where venomous are illegal as long as they are going to a state where they are legal. When I have dealt with this I was told by officials that as long as I picked the animals up at the airport and they were marked for delivery to a legal state and I drove them directly out of the state it was legal.

Your milage may vary.

This is news to you, because Game and Fish is a State entity, and they do not enforce, or keep up with, ordinances placed into action at the municipal level.
There are no state regulations, as of yet, regarding the captive husbandry of venomous, but the City of Little Rock maintains a very detailed descriptive of what venomous species are not allowed to be maintained within the Incorporated City Limits of Little Rock. This descriptive includes a thorough list of opisthoglyphic colubridae.
While the ordinance states you cannot own or purchase such specimens within city limits, there is nothing to bar you from receiving specimens via Little Rock National Airport, as no actual purchase of venomous would take place there.
For thorough information regarding venomous species and the City of Little Rock ordinances of such, you should contact Ed Davis, of Little Rock animal Services, since they enforce all of the policies regarding animal ordinances in Little Rock.
Also, there is a single individual within the Incorporated City Limits of Little Rock, who has a venomous permit, and this was issued by the former Little Rock Zoological Gardens director, Davis Westbrook.

Take care,

Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjefferys@uams.edu
501.526.4856

Yeah, It suxs. Get what you want now, and never tell another soul. Thats what I'd do. (Hint)

Yea no doubt we are going to see rules getting tougher on us. Laying low is a good idea anyway (if you keep venomous). Its important to be legal. Very important.

JB