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View Full Version : Student bitten by pygmy rattler, is given snake as souvenir


Edwin
10-21-03, 04:57 AM
What if a dog bit the student?

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CAPE CORAL, October 20, 2003 - A 9-year-old boy was bitten by a pygmy rattlesnake after he picked it up during recess at Diplomat Elementary School Monday afternoon. Doctors said the snake was too young to be poisonous and the boy, Jason Clark, is okay. Paramedics killed the snake and gave it to the boy as a souvenir.

Clark was out on the playground during recess when he saw the snake. He picked it up and it bit him - several times.

He remembers exactly how it felt.

"Like a sewing needle, when you stick it right there," said Clark.

The encounter ended Clark's recess short. Instead of returning to class, he went to the Cape Coral Hospital in an ambulance.

“It's kind of cool and scary. I was kind of freaking out a little bit,” he said.

So were emergency workers, until they killed the snake. That's when they realized, the snake was too young to send venom flowing through Clark’s veins.

Emergency workers captured the snake, killed it and gave it to Clark as a souvenir. They thought it was a pygmy rattlesnake.

Clark said he learned an important lesson.

“I'm going to try and recognize the next one I see. If it's a poisonous one that I recognize or poisonous one that I don't recognize I'm just going to leave it alone,” said Clark.

Clark was treated and released from Cape Coral Hospital.

Diplomat Elementary principal Linda Caruso said this was the first time something like this has happened at the school.

Link: http://abc-7.com/News/story3.shtml

jay76
10-21-03, 05:19 AM
They thought it was a pygmy rattlesnake.

So was it or wasn't it a pygmy rattler?

If it was a stray cat that clawed him, would someone have killed it and said "here you go lad, this'll be a dandy souvenir"?

Maybe it's just too early in the morning for me, but SHEESH!

djc3674
10-21-03, 06:04 AM
I agree with you! There wasn't any reason to kill the snake. It was only acting out of fear.

GI Joe
10-21-03, 06:10 AM
Am I wrong or aren't pygmy's able to envenomate immediately upon birth. It may have been a dry bite but I thought they still had venom.

Further, if it has venom it still has it even though it's dead.

SCReptiles
10-21-03, 07:03 AM
Yes, they are born fully venomous, however, they are so small they would have trouble opening their mouth wide enough to envenomate a human.

BWSmith
10-21-03, 07:32 AM
Pygs do have HUGE fangs when they are born compared to their bodies. I think their fangs are full size and they grow into them :D And as Chuck said, they are born fully hot. Additionally, they are not able to meter their venom yet, so generally a bite from a young venomous snake results in a full envenomation. I don't remember many instances of dry bites from neos or juvies. Especially if the snake bit several times.

They prolly killed some poor gray ratsnake.

BWSmith
10-21-03, 07:36 AM
ok, upon actually clicking the link, that is not a Pygmy rattler. It is a colubrid of some sort, hard to ID in that pic. So basically they killed a harmless snake and now everyone at the school are paranoid and the teachers will kill any snake that is unluck enough to slither near the school. What a shame.

crimsonking
10-21-03, 04:12 PM
Looks very much like a young black racer and, odds are, that's exactly what they have there. What hammerheads! A recent pigmy envenomation here in Tampa at a schoolyard received a lot of attention and no doubt had a role in the "playing up" of this incident. Sadly, (and obviously) rescue workers were not educated in the native herps. I see problems for them in the future. See the kid sticking his finger in the dead snake's mouth?!! Imagine if it WAS a pigmy?! They actually said the snake, supposedly a pigmy rattlesnake, was "too young to be poisonous". I could have choked when I heard that-- not seeing the actual snake at first. Who decided to give the youngster a "souvenir" of a (supposedly) dangerous animal? Idiots!
:Mark

RepTylE
10-21-03, 04:38 PM
The snake was doing what snakes do, even biting a kid is no reason to kill it. If you are worried about getting tagged by a snake then leave them the hell alone, sheesh wtf is wrong with people?????

Neo
10-21-03, 05:54 PM
the kid friggen picked it up. "Like a sewing needle, when you stick it right there," to a 9 yr old any bite would feel like a sewing needle..

ScreamingMisfit
10-21-03, 07:51 PM
the link didn't work when i clicked on it i want to see the pic of the snake anyone know how i can see this article?

Linds
10-21-03, 10:36 PM
What a tragic incidence of ignorance :(

NewLineReptile
10-21-03, 10:53 PM
Originally posted by GI Joe
Am I wrong or aren't pygmy's able to envenomate immediately upon birth. It may have been a dry bite but I thought they still had venom.


I was thinking the same thing.

Brandon

crimsonking
10-22-03, 12:39 PM
NBC has removed the story from their web page after all the emails from concerned people. They stated that they were just reporting what they were told by police, rescue, and those on the scene. I had no problem with the story, only the idiots involved.
:Mark