Villagers anxious over escaped baby cobras

Villagers in Longchang county, Sichuan province, have been living in fear since 320 young cobra snakes escaped from a farm in late August.

Officials say around 270 cobras have been killed or captured so far, leaving around 50 of the animals unaccounted for.

The animals, which were recently hatched, escaped from a snake farm in the village of Jinmo in Yunding town on Aug 20 after a crack appeared in a wall of their compound.

The farmer, Chen Dahua, had been breeding non-venomous snakes for five years already, but started breeding cobras illegally in 2013.

Of the 320 cobras that escaped, Chen and his family were immediately able to capture 121, while villagers killed a further five.

“The cobras had been born two or three days before they escaped. The farm had hatched more than 3,200 cobras,” Chen said.

One villager, Wang Mantang, told Chengdu Economic Daily that he saw a cobra between 30 and 40 centimeters long eating a small frog.

Wang's house is about 500 meters away from the snake farm. Since last Monday, he has killed four snakes in the area around his house.

Li Qingcong, another local resident, said that the cobras had become the hot topic among villagers.

“A supermarket near my house killed three cobras. They were small, but when someone tried to kill them, their heads would puff up in the shape of a triangle. It was horrible,” she said.

She said her neighbor's pet dog discovered a motionless cobra in front of a grocery store. The cobra bit the dog's mouth and it cried in pain, although it recovered after treatment from a vet.

Li said villagers were worried for the safety of their children. Before the autumn semester started on Sept 1, the local kindergarten found a cobra between 20 and 30 cm in length. Since then, it had found another of twice that length and asked Chen to take it back.

“After the cobras escaped, the county bureau of forestry and Yunding town government asked the snake farm owner to look for and recapture the missing cobras. Since then, about 270 have been recaptured or killed,” said Zeng Congli, an official with the forestry bureau.

Local authorities have convened meetings and issued instructions for residents on how to avoid being bitten.

Chen has been fined 600 yuan ($97) for raising poisonous snakes without a license, Cong said.