I think it might be doubtful that a person with a legally-permitted fer-de-lance would be A. Going to Walmart B. with a venomous snake in the car and C. have it so poorly contained as to allow it to escape.
So stricter laws won't prevent incidents like this.
And further inquiry proves me right:
Caller reports deadly snake missing
Police say they hope someone finds the snake. But call officials — don't try to catch it.
By NICOLAS ZIMMERMAN | 247-4760
March 28, 2008
GLOUCESTER - — A man calling himself "sort of a reptile lover" sparked an areawide snake hunt Thursday, after he called a police tip line to report a deadly pit viper missing from his car.
The man, who didn't identify himself, told police he had been shopping at the Wal-Mart Supercenter when a box containing the highly venomous fer-de-lance was taken from his car. He didn't identify himself, and Gloucester sheriff's investigators have been unable to locate the snake or corroborate the caller's story.
"He said, 'Hey, I'm not going to identify myself because I'm probably not supposed to have this snake, but I'm sort of a reptile lover,'" Gloucester Sheriff's Maj. Darrell Warren said.
The call was placed to the Gloucester Sheriff's Office Crime Line, which promises anonymity and is therefore an untraceable phone line, said Maj. Tim Doss, Gloucester chief deputy.
State law doesn't prohibit keeping venomous snakes, said Julia Dixon, a spokeswoman for Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. All that's needed is a permit from the local animal control officer.
The fer-de-lance is a type of pit viper, native to South and Central America, known for its aggressiveness and the potency of its venom, Michael Wauhop said. He's a former herpetologist at the Virginia Zoo who now runs ZooPro Wildlife Removal in Virginia Beach.
"The fer-de-lance causes more deaths in South and Central America than any other snake, and the reason it does that is it's an ambush predator," he said. "If it's true, they've got a problem."
The brown or olive-colored snake has geometric shapes on its back and is usually between 4 and 6 feet long, he said.
If the snake escaped in the parking lot, Wauhop said, it likely would retreat to a shady area off the pavement to escape the heat. If somebody sees it, he said, "they need to get the hell away."
Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News keeps only antivenins for bites from Virginia's three native poisonous snakes, hospital spokesman Peter Glagola said. If someone was admitted to a Riverside hospital with a bite from a fer-de-lance, the hospital would need to have the antivenin shipped from a poison control center in South Florida — which would take about four hours, he said.
Police are asking anyone with information about the snake's whereabouts to call Gloucester's anonymous Crime Line at 804-693-COPS or the sheriff's office at 804-693-3890. They're offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information that leads to the snake's recovery.
