Stow away Snake!

[Formerly Known As...]

Snaked stowed away in luggage bites man By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer
Mon Mar 24, 10:48 PM ET



McLEAN, Va. - Maybe he heard a faint rattling around in his luggage, but he surely never assumed the sound came from a stowaway snake sealed in his bag.

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Alas, that's what happened to Andy Bacas, an Arlington man who was taken to the hospital Monday after being bitten by what authorities believe was a juvenile canebrake rattlesnake.

Bacas, a rowing coach at Yorktown High School, told fire and rescue personnel that he reached into his luggage Monday morning after returning from a team trip to South Carolina when he felt a sharp pain. That's when he saw the nearly foot-long snake and quickly slammed the luggage shut with the snake inside, said Chief Ben Barksdale, spokesman for the Arlington County Fire Department.

Fire and rescue workers took the suitcase outside, opened it and blasted it with a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher, essentially freezing the snake and killing it, Barksdale said.

"The guy who responded had seen it done on TV," Barksdale said of the technique, adding that it can be effective for bees or other wild animals.

Bacas was in stable condition Monday afternoon at Inova Fairfax Hospital.

Barksdale said he had no information that the snake was deliberately put into the luggage.

Bob Myers, director of the American International Rattlesnake Museum in New Mexico, said it's conceivable that a snake would crawl into luggage seeking warmth or shelter, though his first instinct was to suspect some sort of prank.

The venom from a canebrake rattlesnake can be particularly harmful, but a juvenile rattlesnake is not usually large enough to deliver enough venom to be lethal, Myers said. While the snake found in Arlington was less than a foot long, adult canebrakes can grow to a length of six feet.

"There's an old wives' tale that says a baby rattlesnake bite is worse than an adult bite, but that's just not true," Myers said.

Myers said three or four people die each year from rattlesnake bites in the United States, out of perhaps 8,000 bites a year.

[John_White]

The canebrake is listed as a state endangered species in Virginia, I wonder if the fireman that killed the snake will face charges? Yea, right ....

[spix14]

What jerks, they killed the snake...does it make me a horrible person that I'm always more worried about what happens to the animals in the situations than the person?

[Xeikeness]

Naw, I worry about the animals too.. That fireman's a jerk, to say the least.

[sesshomaru 15405]

Originally Posted by spix14

What jerks, they killed the snake...does it make me a horrible person that I'm always more worried about what happens to the animals in the situations than the person?

not at all.

[nicolenadia]

I heard this story on the radio as I was driving home yesterday, and i'll be honest, I got a little excited.....its rare they talk about rattle snakes on the radio. I was a bit upset to hear that they killed him by means of freezing, but go figure....I doubt there are any firemen around here with a snakehook on the ready, or even trained to use one.....And regardless of the species, if it happens in Norther VA, they would nix just about any snake that jumped out of someones suitcase.

The story also prompted me to look up the canebrake, so YAAHH, I learned something new too.

Oh and this is an edit, I'm glad the guy is ok!!! Hes got a great story to tell now!!!I wonder what they did with the frozen snake....I'm sure there is someone around here that wants to study it.