A large batch of poisonous snakes escaped from an unlicensed breeding farm in Eastern China in late August, and many of them are still at large, reports Xinhua News Agency.
Two hundred monocled cobras disappeared from the Chunyi Animal Breeding Cooperative in Luhe district in Nanjing between August 26 and August 29. The breeding farm brought in around 1,820 eggs from Guangdong province in August. Around 1,500 have already hatched.
Since the cobras got out, farm workers have captured and killed around 150, leaving 50 unaccounted for.
The government discovered the incident after a villager found one of the cobras in his home and killed it. A “carpet search” with a 3.10-mile radius began Tuesday to track down the missing snakes.
As the snakes are not yet mature, they are less poisonous than a fully-grown monocled cobra. It is said that they are unlikely to survive the winter, reports ecns.cn. Farm-bred cobras often lack the abilities required to survive in the wild.
Although the cobras are not as dangerous as they have the potential to be, they are still poisonous. Antivenom from Shanghai has been brought in to ensure that this accident does not result in any fatalities.
The farm has been shut down, and the responsible parties are being charged accordingly for their crimes.
A collection of 180 cobras similarly escaped from Jiulong breeding farm in Luomu township in Emeishan, Sichuan in last August. They managed to catch 120 and kill 30. Seven were found dead. A major search was conducted for the remaining 23. It is unclear what became of the other cobras.
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