Eideard

Different nutball – same idea

The pastor of a Kentucky church that handles snakes in religious rites was among 10 people arrested by wildlife officers in a crackdown on the venomous snake trade. Undercover officers purchased more than 200 illegal reptiles during the investigation,

More than 100 snakes, many of them deadly, were confiscated in the undercover sting…Most were taken from the Middlesboro home of Gregory James Coots, including 42 copperheads, 11 timber rattlesnakes, three cottonmouth water moccasins, a western diamondback rattlesnake, two cobras and a puff adder.

Coots, 36, is pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, where a Tennessee woman died after being bitten by a rattlesnake during a service in 1995. Her husband died three years later when he was bitten by a snake in northeastern Alabama.

Zoo Director Jim Harrison said some of the animals would likely have become exotic pets had they not been seized. “There’s been a large trade in exotics for years,” he said. “Some people are just fascinated with them.”

“You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense,” Harrison said. “A venomous snake isn’t a pet. You don’t play with it. If you do, you’re an idiot.”

You have to reflect upon the fact that these people make decisions on voting with the same level of reason and common sense they exercise about religion, life and philosophy.