TRINIDAD & TOBAGO EXPRESS 05 January 05 Snake saved from lynch mob ...bites rescuer (Richard Charan)
A 12- foot boa constrictor bit the hand of one of the men that saved it from a lynch mob and bullets in Penal yesterday.
Gool Mohammed was taken to hospital with the snake's tooth embedded in his wrist.
He had helped capture the snake and bagged it, after it was found nestled on the branches of a grapefruit tree on the fenced property of Helen Harripersad.
Harripersad lives at San Francique Road, Penal, and at around 10 a.m. her son, Gideon Harripersad said he was returning from the village parlour when he spotted the boa, also known as macaquel.
"I know I was safe because of the fence, but I reverse one time," he recalled.
A crowd of more than 100 gathered, and as news spread motorists stopped and parents brought their children. San Fernando Forestry Division officers were contacted by residents but could not respond immediately, the Express was told, because they had no vehicle.
Mohammed, Ramlakhan Rampersad and Ramesh Samaroo decided to catch the snake themselves, an act prompted by the arrival of a villager with his shotgun, who wanted to blast the snake and keep its carcass. It was, in part, the religious beliefs of the predominantly Hindu village that saved the snake.
"That could be Lord Krishna (a Hindu incarnation of God)," a women shouted.
A group of men stuffed the snake into a crocus bag but while unfastening the noose, it struck, clamping its jaws around Mohammed's left hand, and slithered out of the bag. It was caught minutes later by Brandon Bhadase, who placed it in a dog kennel until an official of the Emperor Valley Zoo took it away last night.
Mohgammed was treated at hospital and sent home.
Professor Julien Kenny commenting on the incident said the Boa Constrictor, a normally non-aggresive snake, was defending itself.
He said: "It's not venomous and not even aggressive (but) sometimes even harmless snakes will strike at you."
Kenny said he was himself once bitten by a boa constrictor "buts its nothing more than a puncture and blood".
Five years ago in Penal, police shot and killed a 12-foot boa that swallowed Chanadaye Harripersad's 20- pound goat. A boa constrictor can grow to 20 feet in length, and east wild pigs, monkeys, agoutis and caimans.
While its fangs are not venomous, its jaws are lined with fine sharp hook teeth.
Snake saved from lynch mob ...bites rescuer