Chinese officials say escaped cobras caught, but leave themselves wiggle room

[babylonsister]

Chinese officials say escaped cobras caught, but leave themselves wiggle room

By Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers


XIANLING VILLAGE, China — Local businessman Cai Yong thought it would be a good idea to buy 3,000 cobra eggs and then hatch the snakes at an abandoned school building in homemade cages of plywood, brick and netting.

It wasn't.

Cai's plan to make money by selling cobra venom for traditional Chinese medicine fell apart when more than 160 of the serpents slithered through a hole in the wall and threw the remote village of Xianling into bedlam. Starting at the beginning of this month, cobras were spotted in outhouse toilets, kitchens, front yards and the mah-jongg parlor in this speck of a farming community in southwest China.

"I saw one in the bathroom," said Zhang Suli, the 47-year-old wife of a local corn and rice farmer. "I was scared, and I started screaming."

State media described Zhang pulling up her pants as she ran away from the toilet, but she made no mention of her state of dress during a recent interview.

The Mid-Autumn Festival holiday this week, when Chinese celebrate the season's harvest moon, hasn't been an auspicious one for the residents of Xianling.


more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/09/23/101033/chinese-officials-say-escaped.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. Snakes. I hate snakes.

[Canuckistanian]

2. What are they complaining about?

Now they can get their cobra venom directly from the source - no middleman.