Fox Report

I just caught a news story on Fox about a Kentucky man being bitten for the sixth time by one of his venomous snakes. Collection was seized and sent to a zoo. Most disturbing part of the report was the assassination of the character of anyone that keeps snakes. A big deal was made over the man having 60 snakes in total.

60 snakes, that is way too many for a sane person to own

Here's a text news article on the incident. Not nearly as damning a picture painted here though.

Police take 64 poisonous snakes from Wayne home

A resident’s trip to the hospital resulted in a strange discovery in the City of Wayne this week.

Police took 64 snakes from a home near Glenwood and Newburgh roads after the homeowner went to Oakwood Hospital to seek treatment for a rattlesnake bite.

“It was the fourth time he’d been bitten,” said Sgt. Daryl Rize of the Wayne Police Department. “He had been in the process of feeding the snake.”

The homeowner was dangling a mouse from a pair of forceps in the cage, according to Rize. The snake lunged for it but caught the man on the hand, instead.

Staff at the hospital first alerted Westland police, who determined the man lived in Wayne. When animal control officers arrived, they found 60 rattlesnakes, three copperheads and one cobra—which had been devenomed, according to Rize.

“He had them in giant aquariums,” Rize said. “(The aquariums) were six feet long and probably weighed a couple hundred pounds.”

They confiscated the snakes. They’re being housed temporarily at the Wayne Animal Shelter, but will be transferred to another holding center in Lansing better equipped to deal with the dangerous reptiles. Rize said the department has been working with the Michigan Humane Society and has found a location in Kentucky that will accept all of the snakes.

He said the couple that own the home didn’t know the city had an ordinance prohibiting the possession of dangerous snakes.

“They looked into it before they moved into the city and at the time we did not have an ordinance against dangerous snakes,” Rize said. “Two months after they moved in, the city enacted the ordinance.”

The homeowner is recovering from his bite. Rize said that’s probably the worst thing they’ll have to face through the issue.

“They were very cooperative with this,” Rize said. “We’re not going to charge them with anything on this. Their penalty is that they’re going to lose the snakes.”

Jim Smith, animal control officer for the City of Wayne, said it was an unusual ton find that many snakes in one home.

“As far as dangerous snakes goes, that was a first,” he said. “And hopefully the last.”

http://tinyurl.com/2powqh

Yes, much better than the commentary report on television.