Recently, on the elapid forum, a gentleman brought up an old post of "mine" in response to my opinion regarding freehandling and generally irresponsible behavior (not having a reliable source of AV, etc.). The post was made from my account, however was not made by me. Rather, it was made by a former roomate/coworker of mine. This roomate had a very casual interest in snakes, and to my knowledge has never kept any himself, much less hots. I've pasted my response to FLVenoms post as well. While the post from "me" is humorous, it shows an utter lack of knowledge regarding venomous and venomous husbandry and safety skills in general. For example, it states that "I" recieved a dry bite from a king cobra. Not very likely. Second, "I" am working while tired, do not make 1000% sure I know where the snakes are, and decide to "wait for the end" after being bitten, 3 things that I would NEVER do. And finally, it states that I didn't stock antivenin or know a source, which anyone who knows me from the various forums I post on knows that I am a strong advocate for the personal possession of AV when dealing with exotic hots. I always have been and will always continue to be. It's one of the reasons I don't keep elapids at the moment, because I don't have my BB-IND yet. In any case, have a chuckle at "my" post. The post is from 2003 I believe, it's been a while since I saw it (before FLVenom brought it up). I just wanted to clarify to anyone who may run into this post in the future (as FLVenom obviously did) that it is NOT from me, and should not be attributed to me.
Abhishek Prasad
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FLVenom's post:
Hey Psilocybe?
I see you preaching on here about irresponsible behavior? Well you seem to forget about your incident or if you were just trolling. WW asked that in the thread but it you didnt respond. Here was your story. If you keep O. Hannahs, I sure hope you stock your on AV since you preach that on here to others potential hot keepers.
Joe
My supposed post:
I am currently in care of 25 individual elapids, most of them cobras. I have 2 king cobras, a 12 ft. female and a 9 ft. male. They are housed separetly unless it's breeding time. One day (early in the morning, and having left them together for a breeding session, i was doing cage cleaning. I put the cage divider between me and what appeared to be both snakes together on one side of the cage. Having newspaper as a substrate, and being a bit tired, i didn't realize that one of the cobras was under the newspaper on the side i was cleaning! Imagine my suprise as i non-chalantly lifted the newspaper to find my 9ft. male rise up and get very pissed! I froze out of pure shock, it is very intimidating seeing a king cobra inches from your face when you are least expecting it. I leaned back just as he struck missing my face by inches. His next strike got me on the hand as i attempted to close the cage door. I quickly closed the door and waited for the effects of the venom to come on. I had no antivenin on hand, and i was sure this was the end of me. However, 15 min. later, i had no signs of envenomation. An hour later, nothing. I concluded that i had recieved a dry bite, very luckily. I always triple check now to make sure my hots are where i think they are when i am cleaning or doing anything, because i don't think my king's will be as nice and forgiving the second time around.
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My reply:
That post wasn't from me but from a former roommate/co-worker (not a good combination). Windows IE saves (saved, turned that option off) my passwords, so that whenever I enter my username (which is the same for every forum I visit, reptile or non-reptile related) it automatically fills in the password. This "friend" though it would be funny to play with my account. He did something similar over on the forums that get blocked when you try and post their name here...You know, the guys who just went to paid subscription and start with an F.
For the record, I have NEVER kept ANY elapids, much less multiple species of cobras. Other than in that post, which I didn't make, I have NEVER claimed to keep elapids. I was not even aware of that post until I did a search on Kings a while back and found "my" own post. Those who know me probably know I wouldn't ever post something with as cheesy a title as "King Cobra Madness" either, trolling or not.
I have ALWAYS advocated that antivenin be kept for exotics, or at the very least be immediately available (like the AV bank Al and Matt are establishing) and ALWAYS will. I have also ALWAYS advocated safe and professional handling of venomous, and ALWAYS will. In my humble opinion, freehandling hots (especially cupped in your hand) is neither safe nor professional. Again, just an opinion, but one shared by many in this community I'm sure. You will not ever find me keeping elapids (or any exotic hot that has AV) without AV on hand or close by. I certainly would not be keeping O. hannah without AV. Again, those who know me know this already.
I thought about replying to that post when I found it, but since it was so old and KS buries it's threads in archives, I figured no one would read my post anyway. No one besides you has even mentioned it, so I figured it wasn't read by many anyway. But since you have brought it up, I thought I'd clarify the situation.
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