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ZANESVILLE TIMES RECORDER (Ohio) 22 June 05 Deadly snake missing - Poisonous pit viper reportedly stolen from home (Mike Redelson)
Bucyrus: An African snake whose venom can kill an adult in 15 minutes remained missing Tuesday evening, the Crawford County Sheriff's Office said.
Phil Gallant, 43, of 1940 Brokensword Road in Lyken Township, reported a Gaboon pit viper was stolen from his home early Monday.
The tan and white snake, described as about 12 inches long, poisonous and deadly, was in a small white plastic container.
Bucyrus police searched a South Sandusky Avenue residence Monday but the snake was not found.
Police said the only bites they know of in the missing snake case are from a dog.
Gallant was bitten by a dog Monday morning when he went to the residence to confront a man he believed had taken the snake, police said.
Gallant's hands and head were injured and he was treated at Galion Community Hospital. The dog owner was served a confinement notice.
Officer Ralph Grubel said the dog jumped into a fight between Gallant and the man he accused of taking the snake.
Gaboon pit vipers are native to the rain forests of tropical Africa.
On Feb. 7, Gallant was bitten by one of the poisonous snakes he keeps in a reportedly secure and climate-controlled building at his home. He was taken to Bucyrus Community Hospital then flown by medical helicopter to a Cincinnati hospital where he was treated with anti-venom.
Gallant has 60 to 70 snakes, most of them nonpoisonous. The largest is a 140-pound Burmese python. He has exhibited some of his snakes publicly, including at several schools.
An employee of the city of Marion service department. He has collected and sold snakes for 25 years.
Anyone with knowledge of the missing Gaboon pit viper is asked to immediately call the sheriff's office at 419-562-7906 and not to handle or move the snake or the cage it might be in.
Deadly snake missing - Poisonous pit viper reportedly stolen from home

Another hole dug for Ohio.

It's people like that who never die from the bite (snake or dog for that matter), they just go on getting dumber and dumber.
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

Just what the Ohio legislature needs to see in the headlines!! This was the guy that was bitten by his Rhino Viper a few months ago.

Another nail in Ohios' coffin....

Al
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"Fighting on the forums is like competing in the Special Olympics, even if you win, you're still retarded."

DH June 2005

This is freaking ridiculous. To a point, I hope they dont find it, then to a point I hope they do. I just hope that if they do find it that they dont give it back to him. If someone stole it, I hope it is someone more responsible than him.

This idiot is single handedly bringing us down... I don't even know what to say. I am not going to lie, I feel helpless. How can we fight against this?

Jason Folt

Jason,

I am as pissed as you are. This is absolutely ridiculous. That snake should have been locked up tighter than Fort knox what the F*** was he thinking? I almost wish he had been killed by that damn bite last time.

I was thinking the same thing... I don't know what has been more damaging, his death at the first bite, or everything else that has happened since. I will never wish death upon anyone, but I sure hope he isn't passing his genes on.

I have given this some more thought though and what is really going to stop someone from stealing a snake? Not that I am sticking up for this guy, but even if the cage is locked, they can just grab the whole thing. Bolt cutters will go through master locks as well. You would hope the guy had it in a locked room, but if the burgular can break into your house, what will stop him from breaking into that room? This guy just has too many strikes against him for me to give him the benefit of the doubt. 2 bites from the same rhino viper and now this...

Jason

Oh yeah,

A few of us are trying to get together to come up with a game-plan. Contact Sean Palmer if you are interested in fighting this with us.

Probably the reason you cant get legislators to change their approach from bans to permit systems. This PVS would be considered
legally "experienced" under Florida Law which is your model for Permit systmes.

Personally I think one of the most famous and legally "experienced" Florida keepers (Haast) was probably one of the most IRRESPONSIBLE
of the bunch as well. This guy took so many bites that he resorted to self injection to keep from suffering the consequences of them, always used flimsy "easy escape" containers in his public shows to make them more "exciting". His force feeding techniques which were probably the source of much of those bites (shoving flexible hupodermic syringes down the snakes throat) were only a baby step higher than back ally venomoid surgery on the ethical scale.

I am not Bill Haast's biggest fan, but your characterization of him is way off base, in my humble opinion. He began the self-immunization very early on. The vast majority of his bites occurred after that. He was, by the way, the first to do self-immunization. He also concocted a snake food that was, and is, extremely efficient. You might not like the process of getting it into the snake, but it works.

~~Greg~~

I'm not saying that Haast's snake food was not nutritious. I'm saying that he should used a more responsible and less possibly injurous method of feeding it. At the same time that Haast was shoving rubber hoses down snake's throats British keepers (who have stricter creulty to animals standards than we Americans do) were having the first successes with the scent manipulated "sausage" technique of feeding snakes. In fact the American "sausages" imported by T-Rex are a product of the British experience with feeding snakes by this method rather than using whole animals.

I was not aware that the Brits were using sausage 50 years ago.

~~Greg~~

The Brit herp keepers and particularly their zoos were the inventors of the "sausage" snake feeding process in response to the development of strict anti animal cruelty laws in that country.

I understand that. But was the invention made 50 years ago? Haast was force-feeding his snakes successfully 50 years ago.

~~Greg~~

Actually I have an old venomous snake book from the early 1970s that shows that snake "sausages" and the Haast syringe feeding technique were comtemporaries of each other at the time of its publication. I can't go back reliably any further than that however.

I don't know Bill Haast, or seen his practices, or anything of the like, but stomach tubing is safe, non-invasive, and often the only method of force feeding if the person is knowledgeable, experienced, and gentle but assertive.

Bill Haast did alot in terms of making snakes more "approachable" by the average person. While his techniques might seem outdated you must remember that he was doing this stuff before alot of us were even on the planet. Slamming him as irresponsible? Have some respect, Ive seen "bonafide" scientists do worse.
Cheers
Brett

NEWS JOURNAL (Mansfield, Ohio) 23 June 05 Poisonous snake still missing in Crawford County
Bucyrus: A poisonous African snake apparently stolen from its owner Monday was still missing Wednesday night, the Crawford County Sheriff's Office said.
A Gaboon viper was reported missing by Phil Gallant, 43, of 1940 Brokensword Road in Lyken Township. He told deputies the snake was in a small plastic container at his home.
The sheriff's office, which said the snake's venom can kill an adult in 15 minutes, described it again Wednesday as about 12 inches long and tan and white.
The Web site WhoZoo says a Gaboon viper is about 12 inches long at birth and can reach 4 to 5 feet when fully grown. Gallant could not be reached Wednesday to confirm the snake's size.
Bucyrus police searched a South Sandusky Avenue residence Monday after Gallant accused a man there of taking the snake, but it was not found.
Gallant was bitten by a dog at the residence when he went there earlier Monday, police said. He was treated for injuries to his head and hands at Galion Community Hospital.
Officer Ralph Grubel said the dog jumped into a fight between Gallant and the man he accused of taking the snake.
On Feb. 7 Gallant was bitten by one of the poisonous snakes he keeps in a climate-controlled building at his home. He was taken to Bucyrus Community Hospital then flown to a Cincinnati hospital where he was treated with antivenin.
Poisonous snake still missing in Crawford County

posting his address was probably not the best idea in the world (for the reporter). how many other venomous reps did they say he still has? ...not for long!
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

was because it was the highly rare (never heard of one before) Gaboon PIT viper! Gosh, I'd want one of those too I suppose.

On a serious note, this just sucks. OH has had a few high profile mishaps in the recent months (and years), and I'm sure this isn't gonna ease the minds of people who don't like venomous keepers in the first place.

I was thinking something similar and I wonder if it was some kind of cover up for a lost viper which would land him even more trouble when something happens. Hate to even think about that. But I find it very hard to believe out of 60-70 snakes, a highly available inexpensive snake was a pick. Either way, not setting any good examples.

Just as an aside, I wanted to thank you and Rob for the time at your discovery center, it was a blast, and definetely highlighted the trip. For your interest I did find a snapper, only about 4 inches shell length. There were also tonnes of turtles swimming around and basking in the ponds withen the minnosota zoo; if your ever there, take the sky train and you'll get an awesome view!

Ian

ps, you said that snakes are hard to find in the area, if looking for bullsnakes, there are tonnes in Door county, WI. (The pennisula by Greenbay). I didn't get lots of herping time there, but I found about 5-6 DOR's in a 30mile stretch of road.

Oh no problem. Rob has a pretty cool place set up there doesnt he. He just got back from a trip up a little closer to your neck of the woods.

Out by Rob's facility it is not hard to find snakes (I am just not too lucky). I live about an hour and a half from there and it seems like snakes just packed up and left about 15 years ago.

Very neat to hear about the bull snakes. At reptile fest, the chicago herp societies big educational show, my organization (ISHS, not Rob's WDC) was displaying next to the Wisconsin herp society and I had the pleasure of watching hours of bull snake mating and mating habbits lol.

That's so awesome, I missed alot of stuff down there (including reptilefest, the chicago zoo, a bunch of herping areas ect) and will surely be back as soon as I can. What's ISUS?

Where did Rob go? Ask him to post some pic's for me, I'd love to see what he found! This august I'm going south again into rattler territory with also the hopes of finding very rare canadian western hognose, and desert horned lizard. If it's rainy, hopefully the spadefoots will be out!

For interest, here's Lefty, my surinam toad (I don't have any hot pics)
Ian

What the hell is a Gaboon "pit" viper?

Don't expect the press to know the difference between a snake from Crotalinae and Viperinae...