Two snakes unaccounted for after July 6 crash
Reptile rescue owner says ball pythons not dangerous
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Two snakes were unaccounted for after a July 6 crash on Interstate 77 near Marietta, but a local reptile authority said they aren't dangerous and are unlikely to survive long.
"The indigenous snakes are much more dangerous," said Adrienne Love, founder and owner of For Goodness Snakes 8, a reptile rescue and sanctuary in Washington County.
Love and her team recovered 32 ball pythons, one boa imperator and two leopard geckos from the overturned U-Haul after being called to the scene by the Humane Society of the Ohio Valley.
The driver of the U-Haul, 38-year-old Davaughn Strader of Pittsburgh, indicated there were two other snakes in the truck, said Lt. Chris Chesar, with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Love said the missing snakes are ball pythons, which she called "one of the most defenseless snakes you can own.
"They're not venomous. They're not big enough to eat you. Their bites are very mild," she said.
A ball python, which can grow to be 3 or 4 feet in length at most, needs a heat gradient of between 80 and 100 degrees to survive, Love said.
Read the full story in Sunday’s edition of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel.