
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 27, 1993                   TAG: 9308270304
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HAYMARKET                                LENGTH: Medium

POISONOUS-SNAKE OWNER `SNOOKERS' FLORIDA LAB

Forty-one poisonous snakes, including a cobra that bit its owner, have not been sent to a Florida laboratory as authorities had been promised.

Miami Serpentarium owner Bill Haast said he got a call from Dale City snake handler Michael Hardesty about 11 a.m. Thursday telling him the snakes weren't heading south after all.

"I believe - what is the term they use? We were snookered," Haast said Thursday from his snake venom research laboratory in Punta Gorda, Fla. "I don't think he intended to bring them down at all."

The snakes belong to Drew Yeager, 34, of Haymarket, who was bitten by a black forest cobra Aug. 19. He was taken to Prince William Hospital, where he was given 35 vials of anti-venom serum collected from zoos. Yeager was released from the hospital Thursday.

After Prince William County authorities threatened to remove and destroy the snakes, Yeager arranged to have Hardesty to take them to the Miami Serpentarium.

After being assured the snakes had left the county, Assistant County Attorney Angela Lemmon said Wednesday her office would drop the matter.

Thursday, Lemmon's superior was not pleased.

"Why am I not surprised?" asked County Attorney Sharon Pandak.

Hardesty told Haast that he had found a legal and safe place for the snakes closer to Yeager's home. Haast said Hardesty told him that the snakes were out of Prince William County.

Yeager had no comment on his snakes' whereabouts.

As long as they're not in the county, authorities can't do much about the snakes except hope they're in a secure place, Pandak said.

"It doesn't mean I'm not troubled," she said.

Haast had planned to add the snakes to his collection of 500, which he milks for their venom. The venom is used to make the anti-venom serum that authorities said saved Yeager's life.

by CNB