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Mysterious Venomous Snakes Found in LR Neighborhood

Little Rock, AR - A frightening discovery as four venomous snakes abandoned in a Little Rock neighborhood. but thankfully residents are now out of harms way.

It started when a driver stopped to look inside a wooden box at Sixth and Byrd streets. As he peered in, a cobra lifted its head- preparing to strike. Luckily, the reptiles are now in the hands of the Little Rock Zoo.

Handlers say the snakes are worth a thousand dollars- and while they are now contained--the question remains, where did they come from?

(Randal Berry, Little Rock Zoo) "Sure enough, there they were, I thought holy cow! We've got some pretty serious animals."

Reptile keeper Randal Berry opened up this box, labeled "live venomous reptiles" to find a very aggressive cobra, a 14 inch twig snake, a 6 foot long green mamba, and a 4 foot long black mamba.

(Berry) "Very venomous- especially the green and the black ones- could be a very serious bite."

Randal says these snakes are not in their usual territory, they're at home in Africa.

There, black mambas are classified as the largest poisonous snake- cruising up to 7 miles per hour. Green mambas live in trees and can swallow prey up to 4 times its size, and the bite of a twig snake is especially deadly-- because there is no known antidote.

Meanwhile, the cobra is known for not shying away when around humans. Randal says the cobra was more animated than the others--and he observes that whoever owned the snakes, fed them well.

Still many are scratching their heads trying to figure out how these out of country snakes made their way into Arkansas.

(Berry)"I'm just assuming that someone shipped them from reptile dealers."

Randal says it's up to their director, but they will most likely transfer the snakes to another zoo.

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hots abandoned on LR

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Bud

These guys are out for the money only!
It should be easy to find out who is responsible for this one.
Twigs blacks and green mambas humm lets get them this has to stop or we will be banned sooner than the plan was outlined.
this is one big reason why the hobby is doomed !
not all dealers will send like this.
Get them or loose this great hobby.
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Bud

maybe a box was stolen from a keeper and maybe the thief dumped the box when he found out what he had just done??? Seems very odd that someone would leave a loose venomous snake in a box, would seem to me that they would have had it bagged. Guess we won't ever know. Luckily, noone was injured and the snakes were placed where they will be taken care of and not killed.

If they were stolen the owner would have filed a report.
and the snakes would not have been given away.
The news would have read stolen snakes recovered!
The box had VENOMOUS REPTILES written on it.
I think this = There is another problem hot dealer whining about
loosing a shipment.
Or some person in the town just happend to misplace his hot collection hey it happens all the time.

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Bud

If this was a shippment from a dealer, why would it not have a mailing label on it? From what I understand, all it said was "Live Venomous Reptiles" and nothing else.

Dave

The box, deed indeed have Venomous reptiles printed on the side of the box.
There wasn't a top.

It's really a long shot, but the printing and the type of container might be recognizable as typical of a specific dealer. Can you post a pic of the crate?

Tanith,
I know who ordered them and where they came from.
I am not at liberty to say either at this point in time.
Randal