3) Pit Viper Peril

Lots of people like keeping reptiles, fair enough if you’re into it I guess. They are pretty cool, but they don’t do much? You can’t really pet them and they won’t fetch your slippers. But, whatever floats your boat. What I can’t understand is why you would keep a venomous reptile in the same building that you sleep? That’s just asking for trouble.

One Cincinnati woman owned a menagerie of reptiles, some of which are very poisonous and illegal to own. One day in 2004 her flagrant disregard for pet laws came back to bite her, literally. Her most poisonous pets, an urutu pit viper, managed to get its fangs into her. Miraculously she remained conscious long enough to get to the nearest hospital, but once there she deteriorated fast and soon died.

When the cops went to her house after her death they were pretty nervous about what they might find in there. One of the woman’s neighbours said:

All I know is, those policemen were pretty scared.

LOL. They were right to be nervous though, they found a shed load of illegal reptiles including more than half a dozen large lizards running around free upstairs. Among the animals roaming free were two monitor lizards, one rhinoceros iguana, two Solomon Islands tree skinks and one tegu lizard. They also unearthed seven venomous snakes including vipers, rattlesnakes and a cobra and two alligators FFS, just wandering about free?!