Are Dancing Cobras Taking Over North Carolina?
REXANO Blogger News Editorial By Zuzana Kukol, June 6th, 2008
It was impossible to read or see North Carolina’s news in the past 3 weeks without a headline announcing that some kind of snake, mostly non native venomous cobras, was supposedly running free and scaring native human population.
It started with
May 19, 2008 news report: “FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Wildlife
agents are scouring the woods near Cedar Creek after a man says he spotted
what looks like a king cobra there last week”
Few days later on
May 22, 2008 news reported: “A resident on Mill Farms
Road, that's off Piney Green Road, saw a Monocled Cobra under her back deck
earlier this week. Officials said they believed the snake was released by a
group trying to raise awareness in making it illegal for people to own
exotic animals. But the public relations director for the Animal Protection
Institute says her organization had nothing to do with the snake release.
Officials say they found a flyer indicating someone lost two cobras, while
Thursday night just one was spotted by the resident.”
In the last few years, North Carolina has been under a heavy attack by
animal rights (AR) groups, whose goal is to ban exotic animal ownership.
These suspicious exotic animals-at-large sightings, or dumpings, tend to
occur during legislative sessions, and
NC currently has active bills for
regulating and banning exotic animals.
The same thing happened last year, but instead of phantom venomous snakes,
the animals at large were
young alligators. Their strolls through the city
coincided with the 2007 introduction and hearings of anti-exotic animal
bills.
“Born Free USA/ Animal Protection Institute (API) is very upset that
after spending huge sums of money to lobby for their model legislative
proposal banning many exotic animals, the State of NC has rejected their
extreme Animal Rights based agenda in favor of good science and a public
safety based legislative proposal regarding reptiles. State agency staffers,
the NC Association of Reptile Keepers (NCARK) and Partners in Amphibian &
Reptile Conservation (NCPARC) created a comprehensive proposal for the
regulation of reptiles that was adopted by a Joint Legislative Study
Committee and recommended for introduction in the 2009 NC Legislative
session. This strict regulation of reptiles includes caging standards,
safety protocols and criminal prosecution for violators. It would be a
felony to release a reptile named in this statute. Even though this
legislation is still pending, if API as reported has released cobras in NC
they could possibly be prosecuted under the Animal Enterprises Terrorism Act
for attempting to influence legislation through fear and coercion” says
Andrew Wyatt, President of US Association of Reptile Keepers and NC
Association of Reptile Keepers.
As for the ‘missing cobras” flyer, to this day nobody can provide any proof
that it ever existed and
no cobras have been caught so far.
“It is my belief that API did NOT release any cobras, but was behind the
release of fliers designed to instill panic and hysteria in the public in
order to garner more support for their proposals. Now it seems every snake
sighted in NC is a cobra… and there are two native species to NC that mimic
cobra behavior. “adds Wyatt.
The snakes residents saw were most likely harmless hognose snakes. Hognose
snakes are native to the USA and completely harmless. They have a broad head
that often leads people to erroneously believe they are venomous. When
threatened, the hognose snake inflates its head and spreads its neck, doing
a very good
impersonation of a real cobra. If this fails, the hognose snake
rolls onto its back and plays dead.
This ‘cobra impersonating’ bluff makes the snake look large and scary, but
it can also cost it its life. When in the state of hysteria, associated with
hoax cobras in news reports, scared people will kill it, thinking it is one
of the phantom cobras.
”Just posting a flyer in a populated area could create the desired scare
factor. It would tend to put folks "on edge" and make them more inclined to
see the missing cobras in any snake they found. “says John Zegel, a
venomous snake owner and former reptile keeper at Atlanta Zoo.
So where are the “missing cobras” flyers? How come nobody can provide them
for inspection? The whole scenario is suspicious; while posting a missing
dog flyer is reasonable, having any exotic animal owner posting a ‘missing
elephant, tiger or cobra’ flyer is as ridiculous as posting a missing
goldfish flyer.
It makes no sense. A typical responsible exotic owner would keep looking and
inform the authorities. An irresponsible owner would just keep quiet and
keep looking alone.
The only purpose to produce or advertise the hoax ‘missing cobras’ flyer is
for groups with the ulterior motives to scare the public and legislators.
People with
agendas, mostly extreme animal rights (AR) fanatics, report
fake big cat and
reptile sightings not just in NC, but across the USA. They dump dead exotic
animals or actually release harmless baby big cats and reptiles, inciting
public fear and hysteria before exotic animal legislation is proposed or
while in session.
These incidents are always used by the proponents of these bills, animal
rights groups, as an excuse to heavily regulate or ban these animals.
It is interesting to note that on May 27, 2008 , a non-venomous, harmless,
small constrictor,
ball python, was found in a Wilmington restaurant.
Wilmington also happens to be the location of the
Cape Fear Serpentarium,
whose owner and personnel are very active in
fighting these AR bills.
According to the FBI, animal/environmental rights activists are considered
the number one domestic terrorist threat. Releasing captive exotic animals
or making false reports is illegal and should be prosecuted. This is not any
different then somebody calling in a fake bomb scare that creates
unjustified hysteria and causes government resources to be wasted on
pursuing a nonexistent threat.
“There has been mysterious dumping incidents in every state API is
active. Hopefully now that their tactics have been exposed by the media
these reprehensible tactics will backfire.” states Wyatt.
Harmless Hognose Snakes Impersonating Venomous Cobras Educational
Flyer PDF and
YouTube Video
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