I was Appalled Last Night

[Mark_scuba]

Last night I was watching Cops On Tv
(I think it was Virginia Beach)
Some Lady called about a snake on her porch.
She was motrtified and wouldnt even open the door..
Anyway the cops found it on her awning
It was a 5 foot Black snake (beautiful)
So what do the cops do.....
They mace it and club it in the head with a nightstick.....
It died.....
I was stunned ...
I told my wife I cant believe they actually showed animal cruelty on tv...
So that means if I find a stray cat or dog on my property I can mace and club it...
cmon that was BS...
Sorry but I just had to vent...

	Cloaca is the posterior opening that serves as the only such opening for the intestinal, urinary, and (usually) genital tracts of certain animal species.All birds, reptiles, and amphibians possess this orifice, from which they excrete both urine and feces

[herpnut]

Yeah, I saw that one. Its pretty messed up.

[Rmk1999]

Local law enforcement at their finest

[themoononastick]

well they treat people that way so... who are we to be surprised?

[lisagordier]

this is the first time I've heard of law enforcement doing that to a snake. I know that in most states, if the law enforcement officers can't easily catch it they call animal control folk who know what to do. The snake is caught, then released elsewhere.

What happened there is certainley a tragidy.

[Rmk1999]

I know here in central PA snake calls aren't all that frequent, My neighbor is the fire chief and has been on all sorts of animal calls from racoons in chimneys to skunks in garages. You'd think further down south where people come in contact with reptiles more often they'd be 1. less likely to freak out and go ballistic over a snake and 2. that they'd have more resources than just mace and night sticks to deal with snakes.

and shame on cops for airing it.

[telefrag]

At least in FW TX our local police are pretty fair with dealing with herps, they usually call Animal control, and they are pretty well versed in the local snake fauna.

I think they typically relocate them.

[xxxjustinxxx]

i saw thatone a couple months ago! i mean y didnt they just get a broom and knock it away and instead they call the sargent and he just come up and whacks it on the head!

[JuliusSqueezer]

I'm sure that 99.9% of America sat on the couch and cheered him on too. I've seen a couple of snakes killed on "Cops", that episode being one of them. Keep in mind that that is ONE event of this nature shown on TV. MOST Americans treat any snake they run into in this very same way all over America every day (seasonal) but mostly without TV cameras pointed at them. On screen or off screen, it's still ignorance driven blood lust. If you think about it, it's really quite amazing that snakes have survived our time on this planet at all. It's also pretty amazing that we have survived our own stupidity thus far.