Pirate, maybe you can help me with these questions:
1. Since wild life is so prevalent in FL, is LE trained on what to do when encountering an alligator, a venomous snake, etc ?
2. If so, I can't just imagine the recommended response to the potential for very large venomous snakes is the baton. Wouldn't the office being putting himself in more jeopardy by attacking a large snake with a baton ?
Kronk's statement that officer pulled out his baton after the snake discussion has nagged at me. One detail too many.....
I'm not in LE so I'm only speaking from my civilian perspective on this:
Where I used to work we had a retention pond near our parking lot and people thought it was fun to feed the baby alligators. Well those gators got accustomed to being fed and we had one that became an aggressive beggar. When they are a foot or two long, it's cute. But when they grow to 3 or more feet, it's scary. This one would hang out under cars and prevent people from getting into their cars.
One afternoon we called the police and they instructed us to contact a professional trapper, so that's what we did. He came out, caught the gator with a noose, taped his mouth shut, threw him in the back of his truck and "relocated" him. In actuality, I believe if a gator is aggressive with people it has to be killed so that's probably what happened.
I'm sure if the situation were precarious an officer could shoot the gator but they are protected and that does not happen very often- only in life or death. Even when gators enter garages trappers are called to remove them.
As for snakes, we surprise them as much as they surprise us. One time I was in my own yard bending over to pick up a ball and while my hand was down I noticed a pygmy rattlesnake inches from my hand. It didn't strike but I sure screamed bloody murder! Snakes tend to disappear as quickly as they appear- so if I saw a diamondback and called the police, I can virtually guarantee it would be gone before they arrived- unless it was stuck in a confined space (my home or garage).
Honestly, I cannot imagine what a police baton would do for anyone running into a snake. Those batons are only about 18 or 24 inches long- too close for comfort with a venomous snake.
We found a cottonmouth in the yard recently- it was cold so the snake was pretty docile. We used a shovel and placed it in a bucket and relocated the snake.
I would imagine if the officer pursued that area in August, he could have called for help- hipwaders, a hat, body covering, etc would have been sufficient to protect them from snakes.
And honestly, if you make enough noise and racket- stomping feet, using loud voices, snakes will clear out as a rule.
The bad thing about cottonmouths/water moccasins is that they are aggressive and they sometimes hang in low branches over the water. It's not common but they have been known to drop from those branches into boats and on people.
But overall, bites are rarely in the news.
