NEWS-OBSERVER (Raleigh, N Carolina) 29 June 04 Snake handlers, beware (G.D. Gearino)
There are 3,500 live critters at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. That number will soon be reduced to 3,495.
Nobody's complaining.
New homes have been found for five exotic, venomous snakes that the museum had reluctant custody of for several weeks. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have living among us foolish people who think it's a fine idea to display deadly snakes at flea markets, in hopes that somebody will buy them.
Actually, there's even worse news. It's not against the law to sell a cobra to any flea-market patron with some bills crumpled in his hands. More on that in a moment.
In early June, the snakes -- two cobras, two Gaboon vipers and a Sahara sand viper -- were taken away from a vendor at a flea market in Whittier, in the far reaches of the western part of the state. Some strange creatures (including a few of my family members) are native to those mountains, but African vipers are not among them. Still, there they were, housed in aquariums covered with screens and offered for sale. After sheriff's deputies decided the aquariums didn't meet the legal definition of a "safe container," the vendor was arrested and the snakes were confiscated.
Two days later, the snakes were turned over to the science museum -- and specifically to the custody of museum herpetologist Dave Davenport. It was his job to figure out what the devil to do with them.
Davenport, whose desk sits just steps away from a cage holding an eastern diamondback rattler that is fatter than my forearm, loves snakes but doesn't love having to find homes for exotic breeds that have been dropped in his lap. Frankly, it's a pain. The arrival of the snakes created a number of minor disruptions that together added up to a major annoyance: A quarantined space had to be created, the network of snake professionals had to be worked, and the public had to be told repeatedly that no, the new arrivals were not available for viewing.
Davenport would like to see a tightening of the law governing the handling of snakes. As police officials in Whittier learned, it's not against the law to sell exotic, venomous snakes. It's only against the law to not keep them "securely in a box, cage, or other safe container." Davenport thinks a permit should be required to keep a deadly snake, and I think he's right.
Why would anyone want a cobra around the house? It's sort of like having a salt shaker full of strychnine sitting on the dining table. You may know to be careful around it, but a moment of absent-mindedness -- or worse yet, a visitor's ignorance of the fact that it's not salt he's sprinkling on his food -- could have a fatal result.
Davenport -- who, because he likes snakes, understands why others do, too -- says a little tightening of the law now could prevent a draconian tightening later. "One of these days, somebody's going to get bitten and there's going to be a big reaction," he says.
This case has a happy ending. One of the cobras has been given to another museum. The other four snakes will be shipped to a Virginia herpetologist who teaches the U.S. Army's Special Forces how to deal with those kinds of deadly vipers -- two of which can be found in Iraq.
Even Michael Moore would be happy with this arrangement.
Snake handlers, beware