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

DATE: TUESDAY, August 31, 1993                   TAG: 9308310277
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WOODBRIDGE                                LENGTH: Medium

SNAKE-BIT COUNTY REPORTS YET ANOTHER PET OWNER INJURED

A snake owner was bitten Monday by a poisonous cobra in his Woodbridge home, less than two weeks after a similar incident involving another Prince William County man, police said.

William Blakeslee, 41, was in good condition at Washington Hospital Center after being bitten by a pet cobra about 1:30 a.m., county police spokeswoman Kim Chinn said.

The Washington, D.C., hospital administered anti-venom serum obtained from the Bronx Zoo in New York, Chinn said.

Animal-control officials removed the snake from Blakeslee's home and took it to an animal shelter, she said. The 5-foot-long Pakistani black cobra was the only snake in the house, she said.

County officials obtained a court order to destroy the snake. The animal was killed Monday evening by freezing it, Chinn said.

In an unrelated incident Aug. 19, Drew Yeager nearly died when he was bitten by a black forest cobra. Prince William authorities charged Yeager, 34, with keeping a poisonous snake. The misdemeanor is punishable by a $500 fine.

Yeager, who kept about 40 snakes in his Haymarket home, was treated with 35 vials of serum flown in from the National Zoo in Washington and the Pittsburgh Zoo in addition to two vials of serum he took with him to the hospital.

Stafford County officials spent the weekend trying to verify reports that Yeager's snake collection had been moved to a warehouse there. Prince William County officials had planned to destroy the animals.

Stafford Animal Warden William P. Tinsley said animal control officers failed to find the snakes after a weekend search. Tinsley said it is not illegal to keep poisonous snakes in Stafford, but he wants to make sure the snakes are being kept safely and humanely.

Dale Marcellini, a curator at the National Zoo's reptile house, said he was awakened Monday by a call from Washington Hospital Center officials trying to locate anti-venom serum for Blakeslee. Marcellini said the zoo's supply had been cleaned out for Yeager.

"These pinheads who keep doing this ought to be put away," Marcellini said. "We don't hand-check cobras. Why do they?"

by CNB