Slithering Trifecta
Three serpentine stories slithering across the wire services should send ophidiophobics scurrying for safety. (We sincerely hope the word police don't come after us for criminal alliteration as well.) First: Snake in School savages student:
DENVER – Students hopped on chairs and screams erupted when a nonpoisonous bull snake wandered into a classroom at Colorado State University Wednesday and bit a student in the hand.
Instructor Stu Field was minutes into his lecture when students noticed the snake slithering near the west doors of the classroom. He said the student who was bitten, who name wasn't released, was attempting to remove the snake from the classroom.
"Class had just started and then one girl stood on her chair and started screaming. Then every girl around it started screaming and all the girls stood on their chairs," Brittanny Bellefeuille, a freshman chemical engineering major, said.
If they had just waited a few minutes, the snake probably would have succumbed to typical student behavior and would have fallen asleep. Next up: Doing a snappy snake stomp:
CINCINNATI – A man who shows snakes and other reptiles at schools, festivals and libraries says a boy who told the man he hated snakes stomped and killed the man's 10-foot-long python. Scott Braunstein said he was showing Popcorn, a nonpoisonous albino Burmese python, Sunday at the St. Bernadette Festival near Cincinnati.
"The next thing I know … the kid raises his leg and stomps down on the snake's head," Braunstein said. "The snake started convulsing."
Braunstein said he saw a man grab the child and say, "This is why I don't take you anywhere," before disappearing.
"I've never, never, had anything like that happen," said Braunstein, who operates House of Reptiles, based in Dry Ridge, Ky.
A story like this usually does not get posted about here, but we made an exception to tell the boy's presumed parent what we think of his parenting skills: They Suck. And finally: Snakes on a Plane – again:
BROOKHAVEN, Miss. — It was no movie moment for a Mississippi doctor who discovered a snake on a recent flight.
Doctor Ed Carruth was flying in a one-seat plane yesterday when he felt something "licking" his arm.
His guest was a gray rat snake.
Carruth said once he and the snake both got their bearings, they came to an agreement to not bother each other. The snake then slithered to the back of the plane.
We suspect that Dr. Carruth must have failed the snaky skyjacker's surreptitious taste test or we'd be reading a whole different story.
By feeblemind, August 24, 2007 @ 3:53 pm
Gaius, you have quite correctly pointed out over and over that wild animals are WILD, and should be treated as such. Doesn’t a 10 foot python fall in the same category? The kid’s parents parenting skills may indeed “suck”, but I have never really cared for these snakes-are-our-friends displays. Back when I was in college, an entertainer/snake handler had a big constrictor on stage at a local bar and the snake turned on him. He fought the snake like mad and the crowd laughed and clapped thinking it was part of the act. Finally people realized it wasn’t an act and killed the snake. The handler ended up in the hospital.
By Gaius, August 24, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
You know I’m not a fan of taking these animals as pets, either. And I’m not real sympathetic when the “pet” reverts to its natural behavior.