'Don't do this': Warning over man's mistake while catching snake
A Queensland reptile catcher has warned would-be snake handlers to leave it to the professionals after a resident came close to being bitten when he picked up a deadly brown snake on his property.
The venomous snake was trying to eat a blue-tongue lizard when the young man grabbed it behind the head and threw it into a child’s wheelie bin to keep it contained while the professionals arrived, Stuart McKenzie wrote on The Snake Catcher 24/7 – Sunshine Coast Facebook page.
Mr McKenzie said he arrived at the property and was able to collect and safely relocate the 1.2-metre Eastern brown snake, but it was a “very close call” for the resident.
He shared two pictures of the snake in the bin on Monday – the first showing the snake’s jaws wrapped around the lizard.
“Don’t do what this young man did yesterday,” the reptile expert urged in his Facebook post.
“The mistake they made was pinning it and picking it up by the back of the head and then putting it in a bin.
“The guy was lucky not to be bitten. Please don’t handle or pick up snakes, especially if you don’t know what it is. Leave it to the professionals. A lucky escape for this young gentleman,” he added.
“Majority of snake bites happen when people do silly things like this. If you have a snake in your yard and want it relocated or identified, call us first and don’t try anything silly.”
Last week a Noosa nurse was reprimanded for “trying to be a hero” when he was bitten trying to catch a deadly red-bellied black snake that slithered through an aged care home.
The nurse, aged in his 40s, broke protocol and tried to handle the situation himself, Noosa Snake Catcher Luke Huntley told Yahoo7 News.
“People have died because of this, so leave it to the professionals and everyone wins,” he warned.
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