A teenager who was bitten by his pet snake and posted photos on social media asking for help died less than 12 hours later.
The Indonesian boy, named only as Aril, was bitten on his forearm by his pet cobra while trying to take a picture of it at his home in Bundung Regency in Indonesia’s West Java province.
The 14-year-old posted the first of two images to his WhatsApp at 9.50am local time, showing the snake spreading its hood, moments before striking.
The photo, posted on December 11, was captioned ‘Why not smile a little?’ and has been reported as Aril’s attempt to photograph his cobra after having ‘given it a bath’.
A second picture, posted at 9.54am, showed blood and a bite mark on his right arm. And it looked as though Aril had attempted to tie a shoelace around his arm to stop the venom from spreading to the rest of his body.
‘Between life and death’, the image was captioned.
Aril’s mum, Neuis Marpuah, said her son’s status ‘wasn’t to boast [about his injury] but to ask his friends for help’ and she said her son had been at home alone at the time of the incident.
She said the boy’s father was working abroad at the time of the accident.
Reports said the boy later wrote:
If anyone considers themselves my friend, please take me to the hospital.
Someone arrived to take Aril to a hospital an hour later, but by that time, it was tragically too late. He was declared dead by medics at 10pm the same day, with emergency treatment failing to revive him.
According to local media reports, Aril ‘owned more than a dozen snakes’.
Aril was also reportedly an active member of a non-government organisation who arranged street performances involving the dangerous reptiles in order to raise money for charities helping victims of natural disasters.
Rest in peace, Aril.
In September, a snake catcher told UNILAD how he’d been trapped and crushed by a huge nine-foot python.
Cor Viljoen said he didn’t expect the python’s three-metre death grip to constrict him.
As the snake catcher tried to make contact with the animal, in an attempt to move the potentially lethal python from a local property, it began the long and arduous process of crushing Cor.
Beginning by coiling the animal catcher by his legs – a very human flaw in the face of a slippery serpent, if there ever was one – Cor, a Field Guide at ATKV-Klein-Kariba, went weak at the knees as he realised this was one vice grip it might be hard to escape from.
Laughing, Cor grappled with the snake’s head as he supported his body weight on a nearby tree.
It was only when another man came to the Cor’s rescue he was able to break free of the python’s grip.
Cor told UNILAD:
I was called [to relocate] a python who was just basking in the sun at one of our mountain cabins. A guest saw her and freaked out. I went down to catch her and, as I was making my way back to the guests over the rocks, she slyly wrapped around my legs.
As you can see, while I was showing the snake to them she started coiling around my legs, but that was just her way to try and get out of my grip. She wasn’t trying to kill me at all, she was just scared.
I could’ve taken her off myself by sitting down but I like the workers to interact with the snakes I catch to educate them a bit. So I wasn’t in any danger at all. She was safely released quite a way away.
I’m probably going to go ahead and just avoid all snakes, at all costs.
Our thoughts are with Aril’s family.
