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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKing cobra is on the loose in Orlando, Florida
(CNN)A word of advice to the people of Orlando: Before you step outside Thursday or send your pet out into the backyard, take a little extra time to look around first.
Especially if you live near the 4800 block of North Apopka Vineland Road.
There's a king cobra on the loose.
The snake's owner, Mike Kennedy, describes him as 8 feet long -- not very big as king cobras go -- but still a very venomous visitor to Central Florida.
The snake escaped from his cage because of weather-related events, Kennedy said.
After a series of storms, a limb fell on the house, where the snake's cage is located. The ensuing flooding allowed the snake to escape its cage.
Currently 10 people are searching the 10-acre property where the king cobra went missing, including a Kennedy team and one from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). They're all experienced snake handlers, according to the FWC.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/02/us/king-cobra-missing-orlando-florida/index.html
Ilsa
(61,698 posts)How can this possibly be a "pet"? Irresponsible.
RandySF
(59,225 posts)The same reason people keep rattlesnakes and certain tarantulas that one would not dare handle. And in the end, things go badly.
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,339 posts)He is featured on the pseudo reality show Airplane Repo on Discovery. A show I really tried to watch because I love airplanes. But the show is so phony and over hyped it's ridiculous.
Anyway, the guy has other exotic animals - tigers, I think. I think he might even harvest venom for anti-venom.
He's a daredevil and a pilot yada yada.
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)juxtaposed
(2,778 posts)rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)hunter
(38,327 posts).
GoCubsGo
(32,093 posts)There was another one that escaped in Houston a month or so ago. I don't know if they ever caught that one.
TexasProgresive
(12,158 posts)I don't remember the details as to what killed the snake.
GoCubsGo
(32,093 posts)TexasProgresive
(12,158 posts)http://kxan.com/2015/07/16/austin-plans-organized-search-for-cobra-that-may-have-bitten-teen/
Police consider possibility of suicide by snake in teens death
KXAN News Published: July 16, 2015, 4:54 pm Updated: July 17, 2015, 5:45 pm
AUSTIN (KXAN) As authorities wait on an official cause of death for a teenager who might have died from a snake bite, the are considering he may have committed suicide by letting the venomous snake bite him.
Austin Animal Protection Office says the public need not worry about a snake on the loose since they found the victims Monocled Cobra early Friday morning.
Around 2:40 a.m. on Friday, a 911 caller said he found a dead snake on the side of the frontage road of Interstate 35, right in front of Lowes and CarMax.
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)TexasProgresive
(12,158 posts)If it happened on my road the buzzards would've made short work of it.
GoCubsGo
(32,093 posts)Glad they caught it. I am generally not a fan of keeping captive wild animals, as it is. But, this is just nuts.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)snakes owned by people who think it's cool to do so. A while back I was watching a series on Netflix about such people who'd been killed by their "exotic" pets. A lot of people are idiots.
Mister Ed
(5,943 posts)It's the natural home of coral snakes, rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cottonmouth water moccasins. The coral snake is related to the cobra, and has a similar sort of venom.
http://venomoussnakesfl.com/coral.htm
RandySF
(59,225 posts)This sharply increases the chance of an encounter with a person or a pet.