FIGHT WITH A SNAKE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 178, 14 December 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

FIGHT WITH A SNAKE

DESPERATE TUti-OF-WAR. In a. desperate tug-of-war between keepers at Frankj'ort-oti-Main Zoological Garden-;, a huge snake and a human being served as ;i rope. The reptile, which is said to lie :>(ifl, in length, was a comparatively recently aci|iii.sition to the collection, and since its arrival had refused all t'ood. In hope of stimulating its appetite and general vitality a course of baths was prescribed. As there was 110 prospect of carrying out the doctor's orders except by force, four keepers entered the cage and proceeded to bundle the torpid snake unceremoniously into a tank which had been provided for its ablutions. For sonic lime the creature oli'ered a merely passive resistance, to the ell'orls of its well-meaning nurses, but at last either its resentment or its hunger was suddenly aroused, and, instead of a mass of stubborn coils, it became a very lively and aggressive adversary. It seems to have been made to encircle the entire qimrette simultaneously in its folds, aint so eru-h them to a jelly in one comprehensive squeeze. Three of the men succeeded in getting out of its way, but it Hung it-elf upon the fourth and buried its teeth deep in his arm. The unfortunate man's colleagues were able to prevent the reptile from coiling itself round him. Inn nothing that (hev could do would induce ii to relax its hold. The pn,liability is that its teeth inclined inward, and that it could not have withdrawn them even if it had wanted to. While some or the keepers wrestled with the wriggling body of the snake, others made' 'desperate etl'orts to prise its mouth open with a chisel and a piece of slick. As this manoeuvre was .guile fruitless half of the men seized the reptile and the other half their comrade, and both parties pulled with all their might. The living rope on which this grim tug-of-war was being practised -napped at the weakest place, and biter and bit at last case asunder through a large lump of Ibsh being I.on out. of (ho wounded man's arm. ' lie was so exhausted by the loss of blood and his lierce struggle for life that he sank senseless to the ground. No time was lost in c.iuvoving him to the hospital, where it was found that his injuries, though severe, were, not dangerous. The 'snake appeared to be salislied with the ligh? meal it had obtained", and, though' it had lost several teeth in the conllict, it at once relapsed into its former condition of apathy.