Im Alive

The television show I’m Alive, episode “Ambushed” makes viewers re-think holding a snake without it being identified by an expert. A biology teacher told her students that they could find animals in the wild, bring them into school, and she would identify them. In their classroom, there were turtles, spiders, frogs, snakes, and more. The teacher told the students that they could hold any of the animals that they wanted to without permission. Rusty Van Wert and Caleb Snow went over to a terrarium. Rusty reached into the cage to grab and hold a non-venomous yellowbelly water snake, which had been caught in the wild and identified by his biology teacher. His eyes were lit up with joy to be holding this snake. He had a very big smile on his face and could not appear to be any happier in that moment. The snake was then handed off to Caleb, who had never held a snake before. Caleb squeezed the snake pretty hard which made it start squirming and twisting and just going crazy. Caleb’s eyes showed fear. His whole body was frantically trying to control this 2.5 foot long snake and get it back into the cage. Sweat started to run down his cheeks and drip onto his shirt. He was very nervous and still trying to put the snake back into the cage when he got bit. He yanked his arm away very quickly and immediately let go of the snake. Rusty’s first thoughts were “If this snake gets loose it is going to bite someone else. So I had to do something and I had to do something quick.” Rusty tried to grab the snake as quickly as he could and that’s when the snake bit him. He was bit four times. The snake was latched onto Rusty’s hand, so he frantically yanked the snake off by his other hand and jammed it back into the cage and threw the lid on top. Total shock had overcome both Rusty and Caleb. Now looking into each other’s eyes not knowing what to do or think, hearing the teacher say “ This is just a non-venomous yellowbelly water snake, but you better go down to the nurse’s office