Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so i'm driving back from Lake Okochobee this afternoon coming back from a great weekend of duck hunting, during which i saw some great pigmy's, mocassins, etc. i'm driving down the road when the three cars in front of start swerving and hitting brakes. i slam my brakes to keep from hittin the guy in front of me, and that's when i realized they were all swerving to try and miss this gigantic snake in the middle of the road. i pulled off and got out of my truck, and walked back to where it was laying, still writhing in the middle of the road. sure enough, it was a the biggest Eastern Diamondback i've seen down here in a long time. 6ft+, had to have weighed 12-15lbs, super solid, gorgeous, gorgeous snake. unfortunately, he had been hit by two of the cars, and his body was absolutely mangled. his intestines were hanging out and all smeared down the road, and i could tell he was in pain. it killed me to do it, but i had to put him out of his misery. absolute shame, his rattle was about 4.5 inches long, and i kept that. just brought me down so much to see a beautiful snake like that ruined. pretty sure it was a male, i would post pics, but my camera was dead. i realize most of you will reprimand me for not trying to save it, but i had no absolutely NO handling equipment, not to mention there were no vet hospitals within a 50-miles radius that i could've gotten to in time. Not to mention that the snake was just too badly injured to save it. sh*tty way to end a great weekend.

I think we've all been in that position. Sometimes that's the only choice you have, and I think you done the right thing. It's still very sad just the same and your right, certainly a bad way to end a weekend. Hopefully your next herping encounters will be happy ones. Thanks for sharing.
Mike

No question you did the right thing. I hate to any animal die (except maybe a cat ), but I also hate to see an animal suffer because noone has the stones to put it down.

as long as you didn't put yourself in any immiment danger; your livelihood comes first. Its good to see people who care for venomous herps in their homeland like you do; most of the locals probably go out of their way to hit a rattlesnake. What a shame...must have been a very impressive EDB.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL

>>so i'm driving back from Lake Okochobee this afternoon coming back from a great weekend of duck hunting, during which i saw some great pigmy's, mocassins, etc. i'm driving down the road when the three cars in front of start swerving and hitting brakes. i slam my brakes to keep from hittin the guy in front of me, and that's when i realized they were all swerving to try and miss this gigantic snake in the middle of the road. i pulled off and got out of my truck, and walked back to where it was laying, still writhing in the middle of the road. sure enough, it was a the biggest Eastern Diamondback i've seen down here in a long time. 6ft , had to have weighed 12-15lbs, super solid, gorgeous, gorgeous snake. unfortunately, he had been hit by two of the cars, and his body was absolutely mangled. his intestines were hanging out and all smeared down the road, and i could tell he was in pain. it killed me to do it, but i had to put him out of his misery. absolute shame, his rattle was about 4.5 inches long, and i kept that. just brought me down so much to see a beautiful snake like that ruined. pretty sure it was a male, i would post pics, but my camera was dead. i realize most of you will reprimand me for not trying to save it, but i had no absolutely NO handling equipment, not to mention there were no vet hospitals within a 50-miles radius that i could've gotten to in time. Not to mention that the snake was just too badly injured to save it. sh*tty way to end a great weekend.
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

No one here would reprimand you for doing what you did. If the snake was in the condition you described, it was beyond saving. A quick end was as merciful a thing as you could do.

I saw many a roadkill this past season, but the one that REALLY pissed me off was a nice C. molossus that had gotten hit about 3 seconds before I came across it (I passed the truck just seconds before I came upon the snake). The snake was in the middle of the road, meaning the truck had to swerve from his lane to hit the snake. I snapped a few pics, and dispatched the snake. Broke my heart, as it was a big, healthy looking molossus (or at least was until Bubba and his truck came rolling along).

I think it is interesting that no one really brought up the third option that you had (and the one that most people would have taken). You could have just left it there and driven away. The fact that you actually did something about clearly shows that you actually cared about the hurt animal in the first place, anyone who would repermand you for that needs to reconsider their own actions and modivations. Though clearly from the posted replies you can see that you are not the only one here that has their heart in the right place. As for me on the other hand, I just got a snake because I thought it would make me look cool, LOL. Seriously though, I'm just glad for that DB's sake you came along so it didn't have to go on suffering!
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Rescued Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Rescued Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
0-0-1 Rescued Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
0-0-1 Rescued Non-Alpha Green Iguana - Bud
1-1-0 Rescued Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-0-1 Rescued Dieting Panda Hamster - Mr. Fluffy
0-1-0 Rescued Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

np