Frail, elderly cat survives encounter with the world's second most venomous snake

NEWS AND VIEWS - BRISBANE: The experts have decided that this was an Eastern Brown snake. It is described as having venom which is rated as the second most toxic of all snake venoms in the world. An untreated Eastern Brown snake bite can kill a person in under an hour and it is arguably the quickest killing venom in the world. An expert said that no other snake in the world has killed people so quickly and so regularly.

Frail, elderly cat survives encounter with the world's second most venomous snake. Picture: Rebecca Daynes.

And this snake was found wrapped around the neck of a frail and elderly cat by the cat's owner, Rebecca Daynes. It seems the stake came out of the bush as her home backs onto the kind of habitat where this snake lives.

She says that she was terrified which is entirely understandable and that she removed the snake from her cat describing that moment as "probably the most stupid thing I could have done". It is reported that she used salad tongs to remove the snake. 😊

The remarkable aspect of the story is that the snake didn't bite the cat or Rebecca Daynes. In fact, the story says that the snake was injured but survived the encounter as did the cat.

The snake wriggled off back into the bushland and Rebecca Daynes hopes that it will survive.

It's not known why the snake decided to wrap itself around her cat's neck but it is suggested that it was to defend itself.

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A while ago I did some research on reaction times of snakes and cats. Cats have faster reaction times than snakes which is remarkable considering that snakes have a very fast reaction times. It's partly why cats can kill snakes and avoid a bite. When a snake lunges forward to bite a cat, the cat simply rears backwards and outpaces the snake's movements.

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An then the cat will bat the snake around the head and ultimately kill the snake. That is how the diminutive sand cat operates to kill snakes as prey animals.

This snake was injured so it looks as though it was attacked by the cat in defence. Of course domestic cats do get bitten by snakes from time to time perhaps partly because the domestic cat is out of practice with dealing with them.

The last point to make is that Craig and Jackie Adams who ran a Facebook group about snake and spider safety awareness said that "Snake identification isn't always straightforward and many factors can make identification from a photo difficult". This implies that they are not sure that they snake was an Eastern Brown snake on my interpretation.

After the encounter, Rebecca Daynes said that her cat tried to go out again and hasn't learned any lessons! It looks as though she doesn't need to learn any lessons because she is well able to deal with snakes despite being frail and old.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.