Originally published at: Employee at San Diego Zoo bitten by venomous snake – no anti-venom exists | Boing Boing
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Every time the news covers an incident of people getting injured by animals at a zoo, I read something like this:
So, since the 2015 case there’s been no anti-venom developed for this particular snake, but there’s a workaround. The article doesn’t make clear that developing an anti-venom was the point of keeping one in San Diego. I hope the employee survives, because in this scenario the reward doesn’t seem worth the risk.
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Here’s hoping that he not only recovers, but that he becomes…SNAKE-MAN!
…okay, that doesn’t quite have the cachet of Spiderman, but ya work with what you got.
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When much younger, after learning about the reproductive peculiarities of male snakes, I made a lot of bad jokes about “Snake-man.”
Adolescence does remarkable things to the brain, I tell you what.
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VIPERMAN…!
(Yes, that is a sentence.)
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First quicksand, now rare venomous snakes. What danger trope of the 80s will complete the trifecta?
Devil cult violence?
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I recall reading the boffins are working on an anti-venom from possum blood, which has shown to be effective against snakes which possum have never been exposed to in their evolutionary history. Must not be ready yet.
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I don’t know whether to wish them a speedy recovery, or a speedy end…
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Maybe I’m misreading you, but is that a comment on the morality of being an animal keeper at a zoo, and whether or not this individual even deserves to recover? If so, please have some perspective here. We’re talking about a reptile handler here, not a chimpanzee torturer.
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That happens in life, you know.
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Article does kind of bury the lede a bit since it seems like there is treatment at least, if not a normal anti-venom. Does feel like sort of a thing someone should be working on, at Global Snake AntiVenom Incorporated or whoever makes this stuff.
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because i recently listened to the 99% Invisible podcast episode about snakes and snake venom, i read the headline and thought, “geez, i hope they can use another antivenom and the person will be ok” – and apparently that is the hope. Thanks, Roman!
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I think the hope is that either he recovers or that his end is not agonizing.
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Oh thank f’ing DOG for you and your magnificent brain. Blowing kisses your way, RIGHT NOW!
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If I ever work in a zoo I think the children’s zoo is probably about my speed. You know… bunnies, lambs, maybe an alpaca and one of those little pigs. I don’t think any of them are venomous, although I was assaulted by goats at the Honolulu Zoo when I was 2. Read into that what you will.
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It might be dangerously venomous but that’s a very cute looking snake. African bush viper isn’t actually a single species but around 20 different ones. These guys come in crazy colors.
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I remember reading somewhere that some (all?) venomous snakes can regulate the amount of venom they inject… no sense in wasting venom on something you can’t eat, right?
Hopefully, the snake injected no venom.
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Awww they’re so cute. Onscreen or behind a goddamn pane of plexiglass!
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