Am I mistaken or was the "southeastern cobra" a rattler? Anyway, I'm kinda in love with the man who was helping GFC. "It's animal cruelty - same as with a turtle, cat or dog". I doubt there were many people there saying THAT. Especially because some of the animals were known to be venomous. Usually the reaction in that situation isn't "oh how sad, how horrible!" It's "why would someone keep such a dangerous animal?"
...I dunno, it just gets to me how animals without a "cuteness factor" don't get as much help from humanity.
I moved this out of the colubrid forum...not sure how that got missed for so long. LOL
As for the rattlesnake/cobra mixup...I think it was just a misspoken word...not that the reporter was intending to call it a cobra. He'd been going on about the cobras in the room...and when he switched species his brain was stuck on the "cobra" word. I think we've all done that at some point or another...used one word when we meant to use another. Should have been caught in editing, of course...but I would imagine the ones editing the spot know even less than the reporter covering it.