Update on "Venomous Snakes found in AK" - FaunaClassifieds
FaunaClassifieds  
  Tired of those Google and InfoLink ads? Upgrade Your Membership!
  Inside FaunaClassifieds » Photo Gallery  
 

Go Back   FaunaClassifieds > Reptile & Amphibian - Snake Discussion Forums > Venomous Snakes Discussion Forum

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-20-2004, 10:07 PM   #1
COBRAMAN
Update on "Venomous Snakes found in AK"

This is the news story:

Little Rock, AR - A frightening discovery as four venomous snakes abandoned in a Little Rock neighborhood. but thankfully residents are now out of harms way.

It started when a driver stopped to look inside a wooden box at Sixth and Byrd streets. As he peered in, a cobra lifted its head- preparing to strike. Luckily, the reptiles are now in the hands of the Little Rock Zoo.

Handlers say the snakes are worth a thousand dollars- and while they are now contained--the question remains, where did they come from?

(Randal Berry, Little Rock Zoo) "Sure enough, there they were, I thought holy cow! We've got some pretty serious animals."

Reptile keeper Randal Berry opened up this box, labeled "live venomous reptiles" to find a very aggressive cobra, a 14 inch twig snake, a 6 foot long green mamba, and a 4 foot long black mamba.

(Berry) "Very venomous- especially the green and the black ones- could be a very serious bite."

Randal says these snakes are not in their usual territory, they're at home in Africa.

There, black mambas are classified as the largest poisonous snake- cruising up to 7 miles per hour. Green mambas live in trees and can swallow prey up to 4 times its size, and the bite of a twig snake is especially deadly-- because there is no known antidote.

Meanwhile, the cobra is known for not shying away when around humans. Randal says the cobra was more animated than the others--and he observes that whoever owned the snakes, fed them well.

Still many are scratching their heads trying to figure out how these out of country snakes made their way into Arkansas.

(Berry)"I'm just assuming that someone shipped them from reptile dealers."

Randal says it's up to their director, but they will most likely transfer the snakes to another zoo.

***********************************************
And this is the update:

Most already know that I packed and shipped the snakes from Exotic Reptiles Jungle. The shipment was totally legit, and the buyer was legal to purchase. The snakes arrived, and he picked up the box from Delta, then e-mailed to say that he recieved the shipment and again thanked us for the animals.

This morning we were contacted by a detective in AK who said that the buyer's body was found near the airport. I don't believe his rental car was located, and the box containing the snakes were found elsewhere, so it is being investigated as a homicide.
The detective said that he did NOT have a M.I., but the body was taken back to have further testing (to see if the death was related to a snake bite). A delta worker recognized the name when the body was delivered to be shipped back to his home, and told the detective that this person had just picked up a shipment of venomous snakes.

I feel certain that his death was not caused by a snake bite. The car was not found with the body, and the snakes were far from where the body was found.
 
Old 05-20-2004, 10:20 PM   #2
COBRAMAN
Let me add that I thought that Mr. Garrick Wales was a very nice gentleman (from the little contact we had with him). I offer my condolences to his family, and pray that he is in peace with his maker.
 
Old 05-20-2004, 10:28 PM   #3
snakegetters
My guess would be that a tourist in a rental car was an attractive target for robbery. That would be the most sensible explanation for why the crate of snakes got dumped by the side of the road - the robber(s) wanted nothing to do with them, as it is a bit difficult to get pawn shops to buy cobras and mambas.

Perhaps they thought the crate was something valuable, especially if it was insured or had a high declared value on the bill of shipping.
 
Old 05-21-2004, 12:58 PM   #4
Darin Chappell
It is truly a frightening society in which we live, when you have four highly venomous snakes in your possession (for which you have no ready access to antivenin), and yet that is NOT the most hazzardous contact of your day!

Condolences to the family...
 
Old 05-21-2004, 04:44 PM   #5
Glenn Bartley
Very interesting story that is unfolding here. I wonder if the consignee was eager to see the snakes and opened the box to take a look resulting in a bite. Maybe they were only stolen by an opportunist after he passed from a bite, or maybe there was foul play. Lots of possibilities I guess. Do you have the web address for the site on which this story was found, or the name of the newspaper?

I also wanted to note it is sometimes strange how we receive praise.
Quote:
Randal says the cobra was more animated than the others--and he observes that whoever owned the snakes, fed them well.
I guess this meant you kept them well while they were in your care.
 
Old 05-21-2004, 07:24 PM   #6
COBRAMAN
Quote:
It is truly a frightening society in which we live, when you have four highly venomous snakes in your possession (for which you have no ready access to antivenin),
Darin, I agree, and that's why I stock a lot of various antivenoms.
 
Old 05-21-2004, 07:30 PM   #7
COBRAMAN
From the news

Friday May 21, 2004 9:03am

Little Rock (AP) - Police in Little Rock are investigating a connection between a man found dead last week in Little Rock and venomous African snakes found the next day in a wooden box about half a mile away.

Police confirmed that man from Scotland and the snakes were connected, but they wouldn't say how the man died or whether he had a snake bite.

Little Rock Zoo director Michael Blakely says police interviewed zoo officials yesterday and told them they were investigating an unusual death that may be linked to the snakes.

On May 13th, police found the body of 48-year-old Garrick Wales, of Kilmacolm, Scotland, in a rented vehicle near Little Rock National Airport. The case was classified as an undetermined death, and Wales' body was sent to the state Crime Laboratory.

The next day, a Little Rock resident discovered the box of snakes at a city intersection near downtown and took the snakes to the zoo. They were identified as a 14-inch-long twig snake, a six-foot-long green mamba, a four-foot-long black mamba, and a five-foot-long forest cobra.
 
Old 06-10-2004, 04:04 AM   #8
Clay Davenport
Case closed in AR

Police Close 'Snake Death Scotsman' Case

"PA"


Police in Arkansas have effectively closed the case on the mysterious death of a Briton who picked up poisonous snakes at Little Rock’s airport that were later found abandoned.

“We’re basically done with it,” said Little Rock Police Department spokesman Terry Hastings. “This is not a criminal investigation, it was ruled an accidental death and it’s handled the same way as someone falling off the roof of a house.”

Garrick Wales, 48, from Scotland, was found dead in a rented truck near the airport on May 13. Days later police found a box of four venomous snakes that they believe may have belonged to Wales.

Police are awaiting the results of toxicology reports to see if they can determine what killed Wales, whose body was covered in vomit when found by a patrol officer. They expect the results by the end of June or the beginning of July.

During an autopsy, needle marks were discovered in Wales’ arm and Hastings said police had found a hypodermic needle in Wales’ shirt pocket. He also said a bag containing several more needles was found in the box with the snakes.

The snakes – a 14in twig snake, a 6ft green mamba, a 4ft black mamba, and a 5ft forest cobra – had been shipped to Little Rock from an internet snake dealer in Florida.

Police suspect Wales was bitten by one of the mambas and Hastings said that if he had been, bite-marks would not be visible and that Wales would have died within 30 minutes to two hours of being bitten. He also said toxicology reports would not determine if Wales died of a snake bite because snake venom contained enzymes that were absorbed into the body.

“He could have died of a heart attack, which could have been caused by a snake bite,” Hastings said. “We don’t know.”

When police searched Wales’ hotel room in Little Rock, they found a laptop computer with emails to a Florida snake dealer thanking the man for two boomslang snakes that he described as “quite docile”.

The emails also indicated that Wales planned to take all or some of the snakes he’d just received to a Little Rock resident.

The snakes, initially taken to the Little Rock Zoo after being found in the box, have since been sent to a zoo in Texas.

“We still don’t have a clue and probably will never know what he was doing with those snakes or why he threw them out of the car,” Hastings said.

He said he believes the reason Wales had the snakes shipped to Little Rock is because it is not illegal in Arkansas to possess the snakes.

The case has been peppered with hearsay and sensational reports and had drawn immense attention from international media, Hastings said.

“It’s more of a tabloid story than a crime and we’ve just been overwhelmed with calls from the media,” he said. “But, since it’s not a crime, we don’t have the time or the manpower to investigate it. As curious as everybody is about it, we’re not investigating it.”

Hastings said false reports in the case included a relationship Wales supposedly had with Joanna Jet, a transsexual porn star in Europe, and indications that Wales was bitten by a poisonous snake a year ago and had been receiving regular blood transfusions to dilute the effects of the venom.

“The news media and our counterparts over there in Scotland have really blown this out of proportion,” Hastings said.

“As far as we’re concerned in this country, our part here in Little Rock is done

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3017508
 
Old 06-10-2004, 05:53 PM   #9
Glenn Bartley
Very weird that this case was closed like that, but I suppose the police may have good reason.
 

Join now to reply to this thread or open new ones for your questions & comments! FaunaClassifieds.com is the largest online community about Reptile & Amphibians, Snakes, Lizards and number one classifieds service with thousands of ads to look for. Registration is open to everyone and FREE. Click Here to Register!

 
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Five-foot "python" found downtown - Ontario wcreptiles Herps In The News 1 09-04-2008 09:20 AM
Just what we need. "UPDATE: Deadly Snake Still Missing In Onslow County" Dennis Hultman Herps In The News 4 06-06-2008 03:05 AM
"venomous snake bit the end of his private parts" Dennis Hultman Herps In The News 2 06-04-2008 11:24 PM
Jurassic "Beaver" Found; Rewrites History of Mammals INSANE CANES General BS forum 1 04-08-2006 06:45 AM
Unknown Parasite found in WC Waglers Viper "Dialup Warning" Intense Herpetoculture Veterinarian Practice & General Health Issues 4 05-25-2004 01:06 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 08:47 PM.







Fauna Top Sites


Powered by vBulletin® Version
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Page generated in 0.06685901 seconds with 10 queries
Content copyrighted ©2002-2022, FaunaClassifieds, LLC