By Paul Quinlan
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 29, 2007
PORT ST. LUCIE — The "Cobraman" was bitten again.
Raymond Hunter, 44, something of a local guru on poisonous snakes, remained in critical condition late today after one of his pets, a diamondback rattlesnake, sunk its fangs into his right hand early Saturday morning.
A neighbor told police he saw a seemingly distracted Hunter hustle from his condo to his car around 12:30 a.m., according to a police report. An hour-and-a-half later, someone alerted nurses at St. Lucie Medical Center that a man, Hunter, appeared to be passed out in the hospital parking lot behind the wheel of his car, the report said.
Word of the rattlesnake bite panicked Hunter's neighbors at the Midpoint Place I condominiums more than his friends, who say the "Cobraman" has suffered vicious bites in the past and survived to tell about them.
Neighbors are less certain of their own well-being.
"All the neighbors that live near him are afraid that the snakes can get through the toilet or through other places," said Joe Sevia, who sits on the condo association's board. Condo rules say residents may not own a dog that weighs more than 15 pounds, much less a diamondback rattlesnake. The board ordered the Cobraman to get rid of his snakes after a previous complaint.
"I know he was bitter," Sevia said. "And I know the neighbors were afraid." This is hardly the first time a snakebite has sent the Cobraman to the hospital. Hunter's website, cobraman.net, chronicles his past bites with photos of himself in intensive care and close-ups of his own fingers, gnarled, swollen, discolored and bloodied from the bites of vipers, cobras and rattlesnakes.
Although he "immunizes" himself against bites, injecting himself with a monthly booster shot of nine snake venoms, a friend, Maristela Duffield, said he did not treat himself for bites from a diamondback rattlesnake.
Duffield said Hunter's confidence around snakes is his weakness, as Hunter admits on his website.
"He's probably just had too much confidence," she said today. "And the snake was quicker than he was." But she also expected he would recover.
"He might come out with some damage, but he'll make it," she said.
When animal control and hospital officials need advice on how to treat a snakebite, they call the "Cobraman," Duffield said. She said an unwitting nurse dialed him up as they rolled Hunter into the emergency room Saturday, only to realize the error when their patient's cell phone began ringing in his pocket.
Duffield said that Hunter had collected the snake from the city animal control only two days before it bit him. Animal control often calls Hunter when they take in a venomous snake and turned over two snakes to him last week, said city spokesman Ed Cunningham. The city could not say whether one of the two was responsible, he said. He also said Hunter violates no city ordinances by keeping the snakes in his condo, unit 202 at 1530 S.E. Royal Green Cir. Although police checked to see that the apartment is secure, animal control officials have not checked to see how many snakes, if any, are inside, Cunningham said.
Although Hunter's website advertises snakes for sale, Duffield said he keeps those reptiles at another location. She also said his snake collection is not so much business as it is an infatuation.
"For him, it's more than a hobby," she said.
Hunter has a doctorate in herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians), according to his Web site, which does not list the college granting the degree. He has a license to possess venomous snakes, according to the city. The Web site also says he began immunizing himself against snake bites after discussing the procedure in 1991 with Bill Haast. Haast opened the Miami Serpentarium in 1947, extracting venom from snakes at the tourist attraction until 1985.
Hunter's friend, Lester Massengill, died in 1995 from a bite of an Asiatic cobra - the kind used by Indian snake charmers - while taking it out of a canvas bag at a Port St. Lucie warehouse.
In 1999, Hunter pleaded no contest to charges of fraudulently obtaining a controlled substance, for which he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.
Staff researchers Melanie Mena and Sammy Alzofon contributed to this story.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/tcoast/epaper/2007/10/29/1029slsnake.html
