OCALA, Fla. — After more than a week after an extremely venomous cobra disappeared from its owner's home in Ocala, there is still no sign of the animal.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had been conducting an extensive search for the snake but started to scale back its efforts Tuesday.
Resident Jesse Montanez said that while not as intense, the search continued Wednesday morning as he heard officers in his backyard at 3 a.m.
“I couldn’t even go to sleep because they kept going around the house,” Montanez said.
Montanez lives next door to the house where the FWFC said a 2-foot-long manacled cobra escaped from its enclosure last week.
Investigators searched extensively inside the snake’s owner’s residence and nearby properties but found no trace of the snake.
Knowing there could still be a very dangerous snake on the loose in the area was a source of serious concern for neighbor Jessie Aponte.
“We have a little Yorkshire terrier, and we watch after her every time we take her out,” Aponte said. “She likes to play around, especially in the yard.”
While FWC officials believe the most likely scenario is that the snake is still inside its owner’s home, that did little to ease Montanez’s concerns.
“It’s a very concerning thing because it is a cobra, and the first night it came out the police officer said, like, it could kill you in under an hour if it bit you,” he said. “Obviously, we’re going to be afraid about it.”
Cox Media Group
