The snake that scared New York is dead, and it wasn`t poisonous after all.
The city`s health department announced Tuesday that, after consulting experts and dissecting the snake, that the reptile was a buffstriped keelback, or Chinese garter snake. It was not, as reported, a deadly rhabdophis, or rednecked keelback.
Last Friday, officials ordered a shipment of 50 snakes distributed to a chain of pet stores to be quarantined after Dr. Herndon Dowling of New York University examined one and said it was poisonous.
But Tuesday, after dissecting the snake in question, the health department checked with Asian snake maven Edmund Malnate of Philadelphia, who said: ”This species, as far as is known, is not dangerous but should be handled carefully, as should all snakes.”
Neil Padron, owner of 50 of the stores, is irate. ”They killed my snake. They never ever let me see my snake. They blew this whole thing.”
Padron said he intends to keep selling the snakes. But the health department said it is rethinking its policy, suggesting that a 1959 law banning the sale of only poisonous snakes ought to be amended to include non- poisonous snakes.