Herpetology Happenings

A Los Angeles, Calif., woman has won $1,500 in damages from Angus Johnson, the owner of a 7-foot boa constrictor named Alissss, after his snake slithered over to her patio and ate her 2 lb. pet Chihuahua. Flossie Torgerson sued Johnson for the value of her dog, her emotional distress over witnessing the event, and the expenses of circulating a petition to outlaw pet snakes in residential neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the Newport, R.I., fire department was called to aid a woman who was visiting a friend’s apartment. He had taken his two-foot Savannah monitor lizard out of its cage to it to show her when the animal grabbed her with its legs, bit her chest, and wouldn’t let go. Unable to pry it off, a veterinarian injected the lizard with a sedative, which relaxed it enough that it could be pulled loose. “She was relatively calm from what I understand,” a fire department spokesman said. (UPI, AP) ...Sure: that was less horrifying than what she expected when the friend dragged her into his room to show her his “two-foot lizard.”