Cobra loose in southern California city

This kind of thing really helps the hobby. /sarcasm

http://www.10news.com/news/u-s-world...a-neighborhood

Whoa, I'm not into hots, but that's a very nice looking snake.

It stinks that it had an irresponsible owner though.

I can see it now...that snake was already illegal to own...people will forget that and assume the person had it legally and push for stricter laws on snakes

Its not going to be good for the responsible reptile keepers. Especially in this state.

*head to wall* Great. Exactly what we need.

The wife showed me this earlier. I'm sure the owner well step forward and take responsibility ;).

I wonder if it just got out or if its worse than that and it earned its freedom by taking out its owner.

This popped into my head. What would I do if I ran across this guy outside?
Do you,
A. Report it and get negative attention for the hobby.
B. Take the chance and wrangle it yourself.
C. Dispatch it and tell nobody.

I have no friends with hots and no snake tools or hot housing. Being that it is a cobra and the other facts I just stated I may pick C. It's a tough question that I have never considered until now. Just thinking out loud. What would you do?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KMG

The wife showed me this earlier. I'm sure the owner well step forward and take responsibility ;).

I wonder if it just got out or if its worse than that and it earned its freedom by taking out its owner.

---

Haa! If he took out his owner I'm sure he will be in emergency! I don't know too much about cobras but I hope it's not the type that spits venom!?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KMG

The wife showed me this earlier. I'm sure the owner well step forward and take responsibility ;).

I wonder if it just got out or if its worse than that and it earned its freedom by taking out its owner.

This popped into my head. What would I do if I ran across this guy outside?
Do you,
A. Report it and get negative attention for the hobby.
B. Take the chance and wrangle it yourself.
C. Dispatch it and tell nobody.

I have no friends with hots and no snake tools or hot housing. Being that it is a cobra and the other facts I just stated I may pick C. It's a tough question that I have never considered until now. Just thinking out loud. What would you do?

---

Now this is probably a stupid idea, but I'd probably try to get a large plastic tub over it, weight it down, and keep watch on it while I call local herp people (thinking King Fox in particular) and see if they know of anyone to take it on.

KMG has a very good point..I have no idea what I'd do. But wrangling that thing would be the last thing on my mind to do lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Heard about this last night, thought it was near me(philadelphia).

Anyway. Hopefully the owner did get tagged by the snake. That'll show him. ;)


That is a good point. I'd want to at least see it in person, then decide the best course of action for myself. I'd go with B, but probably wind up doing C if I felt it was over my head.


There is a guy near me who strictly owns venomous snakes. When he handles one in his garage and his mentoring someone with a snake, he keeps a shotgun near the door in case that one decides to go to the wild. As much as he loves his collection, he knows he has a bigger responsibility to the snake/reptile community.

Jibste816r- monocled cobras are not spitters.

If I found it I would do my best to contain it, and then I would call the people I know who keep hots (legally) to help me deal with it. I would not get the authorities involved, it's bad enough most want to put down the non-venomous snakes they encounter.

If I were in that situation, I wouldn't try to wrangle it myself, and I would not trust my abilities to dispatch it either. I do not have the experience or training to do either one safely, and the outcome could be worse. I may try to get a large bucket over the snake to contain it, then get help from someone who knows what they are doing.


Here's another article with some more information. The dog survived without any complications, so its possible the snake either is defanged, gave it a dry bite, or didn't actually bite. The veterinarian that treated the dog is suggesting the dog was injured in an attempt to get away from the snake, and not actually bit. Unfortunately that means nothing to the media or general public, and this will probably spiral out of control.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/lo...273798301.html

Of the choices given, probably b depending on the snakes attitude, but only in as much as was required to get it contained. Then I'm calling around until I find someone local that handles hots. I wouldn't hesitate to employ choice C however, if it was posing an immediate threat to people or other pets. I also don't wish the owner dead, but they definitely deserve tagged good for their stupidity and the damage they've done to the hobby.

Who's to say it wasn't released by one of these clowns pushing for more snake legislation? They obviously don't have issues using biased, poorly reviewed research and data. Seems more likely to me than someone keeping an illegal hot and it "accidentally" getting away.

Snake was captured.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/lo...274009951.html

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by John1982

Who's to say it wasn't released by one of these clowns pushing for more snake legislation? They obviously don't have issues using biased, poorly reviewed research and data. Seems more likely to me than someone keeping an illegal hot and it "accidentally" getting away.

---

I think you may be more cynical than me and that's hard to do. :gj: You may be right though, hadn't thought of that.


I would not hesitate to try to contain the snake but my experiences as a kid catching and trying to contain a snake I don't believe I could guarantee my abilities to contain the snake well enough to leave to get help with the things I have around me. Sometimes the best thing to do is handle the situation immediately instead of taking the chance it grows larger and more dangerous towards society. I have lost a dog to a timber rattler and it was not fun. I would feel terrible if I could have done something but failed and it was able to hurt a pet, or worse a person.

Like I said its a tough one but is worth a thought. I like the responses so far.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sorraia

Snake was captured.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/lo...274009951.html

---

Well that's good.

I'm sure the snake really "attacked" the dog and was not just defending itself from a curious canine. They just have to make it dramatic. I hate the media.

I found out the snake is going to the San Diego zoo.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/09/05/...os-angeles-zo/

http://m.ktvu.com/news/news/white-co...es-san-/nhHfL/