Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ALBUQUERQUE TRIBUNE (New Mexico) 02 April 05 Dead woman's home filled with snakes, other tough critters (Sue Vorenberg)
Tarantulas and scorpions and poisonous snakes, oh my.
Animal Control officers found 66 of these and other creatures, including a millipede and an ill-tempered gecko, in the home of a 48-year-old Albuquerque woman who died Thursday, officials said.
"Animal Services arrived and found several extremely dangerous snakes that could immediately kill a person," said Denise Wilcox, associate director of the East Side Animal Care Center, noting in particular a few cobras in the collection.
Police were called to the woman's home in Southeast Albuquerque Thursday for a natural death, so they can't give the woman's name or address, said Officer Trish Ahrensfield, an Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman.
"They're doing an autopsy, but we don't know anything else," Ahrensfield said. "There were no signs of trauma, although the primary officers don't look for things like snake bites."
The woman did not have city permits for any of the animals, Wilcox said.
The animals included a monocled cobra and a shield-nose cobra, a bird-eating tarantula, a Southeast Asian Tokay gecko, three African frogs and a few poisonous scorpions.
"The monocled cobra - that's a scary animal right there," said Ray Darnell, director of the Albuquerque Biological Park, keeping himself a safe distance from the glass tank holding it.
But Darnell eyeballed other cages containing the captured creatures with interest at a Friday press conference at the Animal Center.
"These are not animals you'd want around the house," Darnell said. "All these tarantulas are interesting, we only have four in the biopark. We might be interested in the gecko, too. The cobras, though, those are nasty. We got rid of those at the zoo, because they're too dangerous."
The animals will be held at the center for at least 15 days. After that they will be placed at zoos, including the Albuquerque Biological Park, said Greg Wheeler, an assistant city attorney.
Darnell speculated that the woman was selling the animals, because many of their cages had price tags on them.
"I don't know," said Lt. Earl Baca, a field supervisor for Animal Control. "I think she just became infatuated and started collecting them."
Animal Control also found two empty cages at the scene, but they looked like they hadn't been used in a long time, so Baca said he doubted any of the creatures were on the loose.
City Councilor Sally Mayer said she was shocked that somebody would have that many dangerous animals in an Albuquerque residence. She said stronger animal control regulations could help prevent this from happening again.
"I'm used to the two-legged kind of poisonous snake - not this kind," Mayer said with a laugh. "This kind, I don't think anyone in Albuquerque would want near their home."
Dead woman's home filled with snakes, other tough critters

Well, that does it! NM keepers, start countin' the days! The fact that elected representatives are so ignorant as ro presume that "no one would want one of these animals in their home" shows a shockingly appalling level of ignorance with these people. Were any of these snakes loose? Was she bitten by them? No....(at least the story didn't lead us to believe that she was)..

She was simply enjoying these animals...She was completely LEGAL about it (save the "city permit"...wasn't aware you needed one)...She violated no state or fedral laws in caring for the animals...

Now, some crack-pot politician will likely draft up some ridiculous legislation calling for the outright ban of all "scary, non-legged venomous snakes"....This is truly getting ridiculous....Am I "jumping the gun"? Maybe...doubt it, but we'll see...

-AzAtrox

Figures..the press would be irresponsable and blow it way out of proportion.

I wrote the author an email telling her so...

Al
-----
Save a Rattlesnake...Skin a Sweetwater Resident!

I have to say, seeing the thread name scared the crap out of me...I thought it had to do with new legislation (whew, at least not yet!).

The one saving grace here is that Albuquerque has a permitting system for venomous and other dangerous animals. It doesn't appear by this story that the woman died from snakebite, so at least that won't hit the press.

It's strange that they would say "no one would want these animals in their house" when the city issues permits for people to do just that.

Hopefully I won't have to move anytime soon.

Part of the good thing about having a permitting system is that in a way, it protects our rights to keep herps instead of the complete ban. Unfortunately, when something like this happens to someone without a permit, it leaves a black mark on all other hot herp keepers. And that is when all the talk of stricter regulation, banning, etc. happens. Hope it doesn't happen in NM especially considering what has been happening in other states.

What I was told was that there were two monocled, one Aspidelaps, one eyelash viper and 50 - 60 various inverts: scorpions, tarantulas, etc. This lady was supposedly truly infatuated with her snakes and from what I have heard (heresay), she really cared for her animals and wasn't a careless keeper. Also, if I remember correctly, the Biopark does have a cape cobra that is on exhibit.