Quote Originally Posted by Anatopism View Post
Just a quick google search will show that there are a couple snakes that can kill in minutes if they hit the right spot, as well as the black mamba that can apparently potentially kill in 20 minutes or less. I didn't bother looking up how fast a blue ringed octopus or box jelly can kill, nor other species that are not snakes... but there are some wicked animals out there.

The point of what people are saying is not that large constrictors cannot be just as deadly if care is not taken to be safe, even if there are people out there who are complacent and ignorant enough to think so. The point is that hots are dangerous, and certain precautions should be taken. I can argue all day about how macaws can break fingers or cause irreversable damage... but that's not the focus of this thread. The focus is on hots/venomoids.
First I would like to say that I in no way intended to put this thread off topic, I in fact think it’s one of the most interesting threads I’ve seen on BP.net in ages. I was simply responding to an all to common comment about how “Hots are the most dangerous reptiles one can keep”. Although without question dendroaspis polylepis venom is one of the fastest acting venom on the planet and I have heard anecdotal evidence of victims succumbing to their bites in under an hour I find it highly unlikely that they could kill an adult in 20 minutes. That’s not to say it didn’t happen, I suppose if someone was unlucky enough to receive a dose intravenously that would greatly increase the rate they would be affected by the venom. At least it did in a case study I read where a man was bitten by a crotalus horridus and the fang punctured an artery or vein (I can’t remember which). The victims symptoms advanced at many time the speed that you would expect from a timber bite. But I would guess the patient in the case you mention probably died from anaphylactic shock. Not knowing the details I couldn’t say for sure of course but being that mamba venom is highly nerotoxic I would think that respiratory failure would be easily attributed to the venom by mistake. In either case this would be an extreme example and in most cases in north America a victim of snake bite would have time to seek treatment.