Good question about the hospital. They said he was on the couch, maybe he had taken sleeping pills to catch a nap on the sofa or something, for all we know, and was bitten in his sleep. (Black widow bites IIRC are supposed to be hellishly painful, so I doubt he'd just sleep through it normally...) Or maybe he knew people rarely die from them and decided to just tough it out, to avoid the danger of having some of his dangerous pets taken away, since I can't imagine that what he had going on there was totally legal. Are black widows even legal to keep, without a license of some sort?
And yeah, speculating's probably useless, but can still be fun. ;)
No, they're not always painful immediately. I got bitten last summer by what was clearly a black widow in my garage, and the bite didn't hurt overmuch. But I had chills and a hellish headache for a week and muscle tremors for a month.
I would bet on an allergic reaction. Again, not that it matters what I think.
And dude, he wouldn't have had his dangerous animals that could prey on each other free-ranging in the apartment--and he wouldn't have kept all the spiders together because they'll happily prey on each other, so even if one cage opened, only a limited number of species would have gotten out--so I'm really doubting that the police walked in and found a jungle. So there was a boa loose? Big deal. There not dangerous unless either they're 30 feet long or you're a Yorkshire terrier. From the story, it sounds like as soon as he was dead, every animal in the place said, "Ah ha! He's dead! Now's our chance for freedom!" and picked their locks and broke loose. Reptiles and invertebrates are not known for deep thinking and manual dexterity.
I've never kept venomous reptiles and I don't keep reptiles anymore at all, since generally they really aren't very happy in captivity, but the demonization of insects and reptiles, and encouraging fear and disgust of nature, annoys me.
Ah, maybe I'm getting the black widow bite somewhat mixed up with the brown recluse, which is supposed to be horrid, I know.
And yeah, he wouldn't have had them all free-ranging, but who knows with the authorities? They might have considered it unhygienic or whatever even if just some of the snakes and lizards were running loose - or more to the point, he might have been afraid they would have. As for how and why they all were running free... meh, who knows? Maybe he was in the middle of feeding (which is why he got bitten) and hadn't had the chance/forgot to lock the tanks back up, what with the bites and all. As you say though, I guess it's useless to speculate. I wish though that we COULD get the actual story on just what was going on in there, since you're right, the details don't really add up well.
And agreed on the demonization part. And the whole "ew snakes are slimy!" thing. And so on. (Not saying that, y'know, you have to totally love snakes and spiders, especially if you're innately afraid of them, but the demonization? Bah.)
I think they're legal. They're native animals. It's not like you have to import them...they live all over the US and there are almost certainly some in your garage or attic right now. Luckily they're catatonically shy and hate light, so unless you actually sit on one or accidentally stick your hand in a mama spider's web (which I did last summer while packing to move--not happy), they want nothing in the world to do with you.
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Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 08:19 pm (UTC)And yeah, speculating's probably useless, but can still be fun. ;)
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 09:40 pm (UTC)I would bet on an allergic reaction. Again, not that it matters what I think.
And dude, he wouldn't have had his dangerous animals that could prey on each other free-ranging in the apartment--and he wouldn't have kept all the spiders together because they'll happily prey on each other, so even if one cage opened, only a limited number of species would have gotten out--so I'm really doubting that the police walked in and found a jungle. So there was a boa loose? Big deal. There not dangerous unless either they're 30 feet long or you're a Yorkshire terrier. From the story, it sounds like as soon as he was dead, every animal in the place said, "Ah ha! He's dead! Now's our chance for freedom!" and picked their locks and broke loose. Reptiles and invertebrates are not known for deep thinking and manual dexterity.
I've never kept venomous reptiles and I don't keep reptiles anymore at all, since generally they really aren't very happy in captivity, but the demonization of insects and reptiles, and encouraging fear and disgust of nature, annoys me.
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 10:11 pm (UTC)And yeah, he wouldn't have had them all free-ranging, but who knows with the authorities? They might have considered it unhygienic or whatever even if just some of the snakes and lizards were running loose - or more to the point, he might have been afraid they would have. As for how and why they all were running free... meh, who knows? Maybe he was in the middle of feeding (which is why he got bitten) and hadn't had the chance/forgot to lock the tanks back up, what with the bites and all. As you say though, I guess it's useless to speculate. I wish though that we COULD get the actual story on just what was going on in there, since you're right, the details don't really add up well.
And agreed on the demonization part. And the whole "ew snakes are slimy!" thing. And so on. (Not saying that, y'know, you have to totally love snakes and spiders, especially if you're innately afraid of them, but the demonization? Bah.)
Re: rant
Date: 2007-08-03 09:55 pm (UTC)