The last time Luke Yeoman & I spoke he said
‘I got rid of the other stuff because I’ll be furious if anything killed me & it wasn’t a king cobra. I love them, the other stuff I just keep.’
He, unlike most of us, went doing what he loved, he said this because he survived a bite from another species & his wife & kids were abroad. He said nothing else was important enough to be worth his life. But the survival of the king cobra in the wild WAS. Luke spent all his time caring for & breeding king cobras in theUK. These snakes were then sent to a sanctuary inIndiawhich he maintained & staffed at his own expense.
Luke had a real love & passion for the king cobra & the knowledge we gained of this species gave it a foothold in a habitat that was in danger of disappearing from in the wild. This was my inept tribute to a mentor of mine. People like Luke Yeomans who keep & breed venomous snakes in captivity may seem mad to you, but they are the reason we have a source of snake venom being used in research worldwide for treatment of cancer, brain and heart disease as well as environmental conservation work. That is enough from me on such a sad subject that so many of you will see as crazy. Bye Luke. Your work continues.
The above was written a short time after Mason of Mason Exotics was given the news about his mentors passing.
Tags: animal, authority, Cobra, habitat, herpetoculture, keepers, King Cobra, owning a reptile, reptile, reptile species, Reptiles, reptilia, snake, Venomous snake
Apartment Living & Reptiles 