I went today to my company golf tournament (I've never golfed before, and will never go back...) and when we got back to the clubhouse there were about 6 boys approximately 12 years old circled around a garden.. One of them jumped up and back screaming "It bit me!" and one of the other boys promptly pried it free of the boy's finger (none too gently, of course..) I asked the boys to give it to me so I could take it back into the many wooded areas around the golf course.. They refused and as I was pleading with them to let it go and telling the boy that had it that it would get run over or something if he put it in his garden, his father comes stalking over. He says "let the boy have his snake. It's just a snake." The man was a lot bigger than I was and seeing that there was nothing I could do (very snobby golf club, the owners and operators couldn't care less about the snakes and would probably rather see it dead) my team and I left.. When we came back a half hour later the snake was dead under the front bush of the garden.
I was absolutely furious, I tried to find the kids but they'd all left, apparently right after killing the snake... I highly doubt that it was faking it, it was a feisty one when they had it and it didn't move for over 3 hours.. I can only assume that the first boy was bitter about being bitten and decided to punish the poor thing... It was only about 18" long....
