Leeway Corucia Research Center (LCRC)
To: Will Vash - Palm Beach Post staff writer
Hello Mr Vash,
On your article : Coral Snake 'attack' puts puppy in Peril
(when I sent this I put the words of the title in the following color order...red,yellow,black, red yellow, black, etc. It doesn't show here)
I wish to point out that snakes in general use their venom to subdue prey.
It is a very costly and body taxing excersize. As such, in a case of a non prey situation ,under attack,
they use their venom only as a last resort. The Coral snake is a very shy secretive snake with a very
small mouth used mostly for subduing invertebrates and frogs. The unfortunate dochshund was probably curious and was nosing the snake around if not outright tried to kill it. The response by the snake was a defensive one. The use of the term attack suggests the snake went out of it's way to infect suffering on the dog. Unfortunately, this instills more negativity on these animals who are already facing peril with the large scale habitat destruction in Southern Florida. May I suggest a a unilateral approach in wording if a similar story appears.
The public at times does not understand the full situation and will act emotionally charged against an animal using human values.
Case in point: Steve Irwin Mr. Irwin, in a foolish daredevil move got stung by a ray. The ray was trying to defend himself. Unfortunately, due to Mr. Irwin's popularity, the crazy's of the world started a vendetta against all rays. There was even a local case in South Florida where a man in the name of Steve Irwin tortured and slowly cut up a living ray while recording it.
The problem with the current story if not worded correctly is that people now will be out to kill all snakes. These are the situations that we all need to avoid.
Thank you for listening.
Brian L. Schnirel
LCRC