Venomous snake kills teenage pet store worker, then escapes

Mark Frauenfelder 10:38 am Thu Jul 16, 2015

cobra

A venomous monocled cobra has escaped near Austin, Texas after biting and killing an 18-year-old pet store employee who was keeping it at his home. Grant Thompson was found unresponsive in a parking lot with puncture wounds on his wrist. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. Police found six tarantulas, a foot-long non-venomous Mexican hognose snake, and an African bullfrog in Thompson's car.

Austin Animal Services is not going to look for the snake. “It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Austin Animal Services spokeswoman Patricia Fraga.

Monocled cobras are native to South and Southeast Asia. They are highly venomous and very common in Thailand. According to Wikipedia: the "monocled cobra causes the highest fatality due to snake venom poisoning in Thailand."

Thailand Snakes has a good info page about monocled cobras, where they are described as "fierce."

Here's a video that is likely to make you respectful towards monocled cobras:

Image: Shutterstock

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