Wednesday 24 September 2008

Snake

Lovely story in today's The National: a keen sailor in Ras Al Khaimah (yes, yes, it rhymes) discovered a highly poisonous saw-scaled viper in a storeroom. He obviously hadn't been to the Sharjah Natural History museum, where these highly poisonous snakes are on display. Because he tried to chuck it into a bucket as he believed there were no poisonous snakes in the UAE.

WTF? The UAE has several poisonous snakes, spiders, scorpions and fish species. Why on earth would you make that assumption???

Having been bitten, Mr Reg Furlong found it hard to get appropriate treatment. This is not the bit that amused me, of course - apparently he was quite ill as a result of the bite and I am geniunely sorry for him. It must be unpleasant/painful.

No, what got my giggle gland going was the fact that the police finally killed the snake (which Mr Furlong's wife had brought along for identification) using a fire extinguisher. To quote The National story:

"Mrs Furlong brought the snake with her to the hospital, trapped in a covered bucket, so it could be identified. A spokesman for Civil Defence said officers killed it with a fire extinguisher."

How in the name of all that is holy do you kill a small, agile and highly poisonous snake with a fire extinguisher? Can you IMAGINE the scenes? It makes me break out laughing even to start thinking about the absolute chaos that must have broken out!

4 comments:

The Last Ephor said...

"How in the name of all that is holy do you kill a small, agile and highly poisonous snake with a fire extinguisher?"

If they're smart, they shot it w/it. Most extinguishers today use an oxygen sucking foam. Shoot it at the snake and he won't be able to breathe. Works like cyanide.

nzm said...

Maybe they set it on fire and then put it out with the extinguisher?

:-)

(I would second Duffy's answer, but most likely they bashed it to death using the extinguisher!)

Seabee said...

It's a Monty Python script isn't it?

Alexander said...

Monty Viper...

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