King Cobra in Canada

[NserUame]

i'm wondering what are the laws regarding this? can you own them? can you legally import them? what about their venom, can you import that and sell it?

i have several other questions but i guess we can start there. thanks for your time and please no name calling.

[mykee]

Thought this was rather funny:
Hospital won't give anti-venom to man bitten by cobra (http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=1f708c07-81c0-4176-8d83-2cb24b99e608&k=67874)

[citysnakes]

its understandable that the doctors wouldnt administer some shady anti-venom but i think at that point i would buy a syringe and inject it myself...

[Kmef07]

hell ya i'd defiantly give it to myself. but i think that the story making headlines is going to strike a blow against the snake community on keeping what the general public considers dangerous herps. not just poisioness but also big herps.

[Deej85]

That just happened in BC Canada.

They recently passed a law prohibiting ownership of venomous reptiles.

Also any snake greater than 3 meters is also banned.

There could be similar laws in other parts of Canada.

Don't king cobras get about 14 feet? It would be disallowed in BC on both accounts.

[Smilts]

Its sad how weak willed the public is that the media can so run there lives. dogs are scary, cant have em. Snakes are scary, cant have them. But really no anti venom and refusing to give him what became available. And why wasnt he better prepaired?

[siz]

...And why wasnt he better prepaired?

My thoughts exactly...just ridiculous. He should have had his own anti-venom on hand. Wasn't it his friend who sent it to the doctor anyway?

[citysnakes]

most legal snake keepers arent properly "prepared" so we cant really expect illegal ones to be top notch examples.

[mykee]

When you decide (for whatever deluded reason) to keep hots, your huge ego has to leave a little room in that giant head of yours to not say "it'll never happen to me".
My honest opinion is instead of deciding to keep hots, it's a lot safer to just to ahead and get the peeenis enlargement instead..

[Kmef07]

safer to just to ahead and get the peeenis enlargement instead..

Haha wow that is hilarious!

maybe a boob job for the women. and also some butt implats and peck implants for the guys also lol.

[Smilts]

I'm prepared for snake bites when I go out just field herping even though I grew up working a ranch, crap happens. I truly cant imagine not being prepared if I actually owned the hots.

[Aaron_S]

people aren't better prepared with their own anti-venom because it's incredibly expensive. From what I recall when I was told by some hot keepers (who did have their own stock) it takes easily 10 vials of the stuff to help someone and each vial runs for a couple thousand. Not only that but the person keeping these needs to properly store them and they don't have a long shelf life. You'd be constantly spending $20,000 on your anti-venom.

[mykee]

So why would a hospital stock antivenom in a part of the country where there are no venomous species to save the life of some jackass who felt he needed to own one?
I say if you can afford to keep antivenom on hand privately, buy as many hots as you like, but if you expect the hospital to carry it, maybe Darwin's Theory holds some water.

[Aaron_S]

Mykee, from talking to some guys who are really into their venomous snake keeping that is what they believe. I think you remember "BSmith" from the old forums? He even had signs at crawling level of his hot room to notify firefighters crawling under smoke of what's inside.

[Smilts]

It all falls back to only doing as much as you are prepared mentally and finatially to do :). I'll never own hots I like my self to much and I'm fairly certain I could manage to be bitten.

[siz]

They are amazing creeatures but I would never own one myself either - the risk is just too high and right now I am no where close to being qualified to be near them haha.

[overrated]

Yeah you would have to be crazy to purchase one of these.