Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is the news story:

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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And this is the update:

Most already know that I packed and shipped the snakes from Exotic Reptiles Jungle. The shipment was totally legit, and the buyer was legal to purchase. The snakes arrived, and he picked up the box from Delta, then e-mailed to say that he recieved the shipment and again thanked us for the animals.

This morning we were contacted by a detective in AK who said that the buyer's body was found near the airport. I don't believe his rental car was located, and the box containing the snakes were found elsewhere, so it is being investigated as a homicide.
The detective said that he did NOT have a M.I., but the body was taken back to have further testing (to see if the death was related to a snake bite). A delta worker recognized the name when the body was delivered to be shipped back to his home, and told the detective that this person had just picked up a shipment of venomous snakes.

I feel certain that his death was not caused by a snake bite. The car was not found with the body, and the snakes were far from where the body was found.

My only question is about the packing..aren't the snakes supposed to be bagged prior to being crated?

~~Greg~~

"A closer look revealed a writhing cloth bag and the unmistakable form of a full-hooded cobra preparing to strike."

This was in another article... It made me think they were properly bagged.

Dave

Shame about the fella..I hope they solve the case. ~~Greg~~

Greg, I personally packed the shipment, and per Delta regualtions, they were DOUBLE BAGGED. They arrived at the zoo in the marked double bags. The tie wraps were cut off, so it would seem that he had opened the bag to view the animals.
Ray Hunter

The below is off the A.P.:

Friday May 21, 2004 9:03am

Little Rock (AP) - Police in Little Rock are investigating a connection between a man found dead last week in Little Rock and venomous African snakes found the next day in a wooden box about half a mile away.

Police confirmed that man from Scotland and the snakes were connected, but they wouldn't say how the man died or whether he had a snake bite.

Little Rock Zoo director Michael Blakely says police interviewed zoo officials yesterday and told them they were investigating an unusual death that may be linked to the snakes.

On May 13th, police found the body of 48-year-old Garrick Wales, of Kilmacolm, Scotland, in a rented vehicle near Little Rock National Airport. The case was classified as an undetermined death, and Wales' body was sent to the state Crime Laboratory.

The next day, a Little Rock resident discovered the box of snakes at a city intersection near downtown and took the snakes to the zoo. They were identified as a 14-inch-long twig snake, a six-foot-long green mamba, a four-foot-long black mamba, and a five-foot-long forest cobra.

Unless I'm mis-interpreting things here, y'all both say that "I packed the snakes". If you both did it together, that's fine, but seein' y'all both say it as if it was a one-man job, it's a tad confusing.

~~Greg~~

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np

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He's under Rick D's heading...but he has posted at least twice & signed his own name.

~~Greg~~