Breaking News
Community News

Anssssswering the Call: Mid-Ohio Valley reptile rescue cares for animals after auto accident

By Evan Bevins 4 min read

MARIETTA -- Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers responding to a crash on July 6 near mile marker 9 on Interstate 77 got more than they bargained for: snakes.

Nearly three dozen of them.

"Apparently this subject sells reptiles, and he had several in there that he was transporting while he was moving," patrol Sgt. Eric Knowlton said Wednesday.

Troopers called the Humane Society of the Ohio Valley, and they called Adrienne Love, founder and owner of For Goodness Snakes 8, a reptile rescue and sanctuary in Washington County. She and her team arrived on the scene to find a U-Haul trailer flipped on its top and split open, with furniture, boxes, bags and other items strewn about.

Love found multiple snakes in drawers, including in shelved racks.

"Breeder racks are not an appropriate thing to keep snakes in," she said.

The snakes, 32 ball pythons and one boa imperator, were not in great shape, Love said. Many of them had "stuck shed," dead skin that had failed to come off completely and adhered to the new layer, which can be caused by improper living conditions. And all of them had respiratory infections, likely as a result of being in containers that contained their own bodily waste products.

"Respiratory is lethal for snakes because they do not naturally have saliva," Love said. "It can drown them."

The snakes were also infested with mites.

"When we picked them up, there's just mites crawling up our arms and all over our clothes," Love said.

She also recovered two leopard geckos.

"Both of them had dropped their tails, which is basically a defense mechanism that probably happened during the accident," Love said.

The geckos also had shedding issues, with so much dead skin building up around their claws it cut off the circulation to their toes, some of which fell off.

Love has had snakes most of her life and has been rehabilitating reptiles for 15 years. She started For Goodness Snakes 8 about a year ago and cares for multiple snakes, lizards and even a foot-long African giant millipede. A permanent location in downtown Marietta is in the works.

Love and her team were able to provide a lot of care for the snakes, though some had to be taken to a veterinarian for X-rays.

"There were multiple old wounds that had never healed," she said.

While enclosures are custom built for For Goodness Snakes' reptiles, these snakes and geckos are being kept in plastic tubs, which Love said is a temporary measure while they are quarantined for 30 days to prevent the respiratory infections from spreading. The tubs are the easiest containers to keep sanitized, she said.

Knowlton called Love "a lifesaver."

"(She) and her team came, and they were able to gather up all the reptiles," he said.

The driver of the U-Haul was Davaughn Strader, 38, of Pittsburgh, Knowlton said. He reported that he fell asleep, causing the truck to go off the right side of the road, strike an embankment and overturn. However, the incident remains under investigation, Knowlton said, and charges of operating a vehicle under the influence and driving on a suspended license are pending, although he added alcohol did not appear to be a factor.

Strader and three passengers, his wife and two minors, were taken to the hospital after the wreck, Knowlton said.

Fredley Tynan, humane officer for Washington County through the Humane Society of the Ohio Valley, said she's investigating the situation and gathering information to refer to the Washington County Prosecutor's Office to determine if additional charges are warranted.

More information about the rescued reptiles and ways to support For Goodness Snakes 8 can be found at Adrienne Love's Facebook page.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.

***

More information about the rescued reptiles and ways to support For Goodness Snakes 8 can be found at Adrienne Love's Facebook page.

Starting at /week.