And we get all freaked out when our kids' toys have a little bit of lead...

That was a very disturbing video. Please warn me next time.

I don't believe in cruelty to animals, but in my opinion, the only good snake is a dead snake. They are always evil in Disney movies so it must be true.

The cobra must have been domesticated. I have heard that a rattlesnake could break your leg with the force of it's strike. Wouldn't the cobra have had at least a painful blunt force strike on the baby's head?

 

A cobra can't be domesticated. Most reptiles can't be. It may be possible to get them docile, but docile isn't same as domesticated. A docile wolf from a zoo isn't a dog.

The rattlesnake breaking a leg sounds like a myth. If true, it would likely have to be a large 8ft diamond back. Which is also a heavy bodied snake, thicker and heavier than a similiar length cobra. (New virtually useless fact for the day: some vipers only go to the bathroom once a year. A full colon gives them balance for longer strikes.)

The reason why I say it's a myth is because a venomous snake only needs enough force to get its fangs in and inject the vemon. The snake then retreats and waits. Now rattle snakes can have decent size fangs. One breaking off in a shin bone wouldn't be surprising.

That bite, inject, then wait behavoir is why the kid wasn't being hurt. Without vemon, the snake didn't know that it needed to use more force. From experience, a warning strike in which the snake just bites and lets go is more startling than painful.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(roryjr @ Nov 16 2007, 08:00 AM) [snapback]540477[/snapback]</div>

Hey now, if it weren't for snakes, we'd be up to our armpits in rodents. That's why a venomous snake like a cobra is still valued in India -- it protects crops. Overkilling of snakes can also result in disease outbreaks from increased rodent populations.

The cobra is not behaving in a domesticated fashion in the video -- it is in fact terrified and trying to deter the baby from what the snake perceive as an attack. A relaxed cobra would not be displaying its hood.

I would be very surprised to hear of a snake breaking a bone with its strike -- unless it was one of the real giants like an anaconda or reticulated python.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Nov 14 2007, 03:55 PM) [snapback]539586[/snapback]</div>

Neutering, no.
Cropping, borderline yes.
Clipping toenails and shoeing a horse? Now you're just being silly, unless you really can't tell the difference between a manicure and a tooth extraction.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(roryjr @ Nov 16 2007, 05:00 AM) [snapback]540477[/snapback]</div>

You are kidding right? I think Scott covered it nicely but I couldn't help think you were joking.

Not enough mass behind a Cobra to break a normal adult human leg. They do not have the speed (Crotalus atrox or Western Diamondback, at 3.48m/s, Young et al., 2001) and mass to create enough force to cause a break. A good human punch can travel at 40ft./sec.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Nov 16 2007, 11:26 AM) [snapback]540577[/snapback]</div>

I am sorry to say, but no, I am not kidding. Black snakes are good for keeping rats out of the barn, but I don't want to see him. If I see a snake in my yard, he's dead as soon as I can get the shotgun. I have a 5 year old and I won't take the chance of him getting bitten.

My dad use to have a black snake in his shed and it was always a scary proposition to reach in for a tool. Especially when we saw the skin he shed.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(roryjr @ Nov 16 2007, 08:59 AM) [snapback]540602[/snapback]</div>

Exercising caution in your own yard is one thing. Wishing all snakes to dead snakes is ignorant.

Does Elaphe obsoleta (black snake)get large in your area? I know they can grow quite large in general but different locations induce different evolutionary pressures. I've never seen one but they look cool in pics.

 

Hmm, my last post came across as rather ude. I did not intend it to be so. I use the word ignorant quite liberally around my friends and I realize in re-reading my post that it could be taken in a mean spirited way. I appologize if that is how it was accepted.