Snake-handling pastor arrested
flockwoodKentucky sting focused on people who, officials believed, were “buying, selling and possessing illegal reptiles.” One of Kentucky’s laws makes it illegal to handle snakes for religious reasons. The law, because it targets only those with a religious motive for handling the snakes, is questionable on first amendment grounds, although thus far the courts have upheld it. In the case below, it is notable that 1.) the state apparently had no religious motivation for the bust. Religious and, most likely, non-religious snake enthusiasts are in hot water. and 2.) The state is going after people who buy or sell the reptiles. These aren’t people, most likely, who simply caught a copperhead in their back yard and put it in a container. Commerce may have been involved.
Pastor among suspects in illegal snake bust
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — 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.
More than 100 snakes, many of them deadly, were confiscated in the undercover sting after Thursday’s arrests, said Col. Bob Milligan, director of law enforcement for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.
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.
Handling snakes is practiced in a handful of fundamentalist churches across Appalachia, based on the interpretation of Bible verses saying true believers can take up serpents without being harmed. The practice is illegal in most states, including Kentucky.
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.
Coots was charged Thursday with buying, selling and possessing illegal reptiles. He had no listed telephone number and couldn’t be reached for comment. There was no phone listing for the church.
“It is disturbing to me that individuals would keep such dangerous wildlife in their homes and in neighborhoods where they put their families, visitors and neighbors at such high risk,” Milligan said.
The snakes, plus one alligator, were turned over to the nonprofit Kentucky Reptile Zoo in Slade. Most appeared to have been captured from the wild, with some imported from Asia and Africa.
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.”
Undercover officers purchased more than 200 illegal reptiles during the investigation, some of which were advertised for sale on Web sites. One such Web site lists copperheads for $50 each and cobras for $450.
“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.”
July 17th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I think it is a travesty that we Kentuckians are allowed to own a Bushmaster assault rifle (though apparently not to point one at police officers), or a Colt Python, Anaconda, Diamondback, or King Cobra revolver, but not the reptiles after which these fine weapons were named. Surely, if we have a right to keep and bear arms, as the US Supreme Court has affirmed, we also have the right to keep and (carefully) bear the things after which our weapons were named.
And, I think the statute is unconstitutional because it singles out snakes for discrimination. For example, I can own both a Taurus Raging Bull pistol and the eponymous bull itself. Ditto the British Bulldog revolver. The Ruger Redhawk and Blackhawk series are admittedly problematic, due to the fact that most hawks are considered endangered species, but the owning of hawks and their use in hunting has been traditionally allowed, and I am told is a popular sport among our Middle Eastern allies.
But not snakes, even for religious purposes. As Indiana Jones once muttered: “Snakes, why does it always have to be snakes?”
July 18th, 2008 at 5:36 am
Caleb: I agree wholeheartily. I think it rather stupid to have seatbelt laws, but not motorcyclye helmet laws. Between the two, the head has always been more important to man than the heart; and the head stands far greater damage in an accident without the use of a helmet.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I wholeheartedly agree, Peach. What we need to do is get those people to stop riding motorcycles and start handling snakes: It would be safer! And, you don’t have to wear a helmet to handle snakes.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:39 am
BTW, the Kentucky Reptile Zoo in Slade (not far from where I grew up) is the place where the sick snake bit someone once, and then died, allowing the headline “Snake Bites Man, then Snake Dies.”
July 18th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
What about seagulls? Can we own cricket-eating seagulls?
July 18th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
What about seagulls?
July 20th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I don’t know, David. There is no weapon (that I know of) named after a seagull, though Indiana Jones and his father did use them as a weapon one time. That puts it on Constitutionally dicy ground. However, the old German dive bomber, the Stuka, was named for a stork. You might want to switch to a stork just to be careful.
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
If I ever walk into a church with snakes crawlin the floor, I want ever gun I own.
July 24th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Your faith will protect you, Mike, if it’s strong enough. Otherwise, I’d suggest a shotgun; they move fast and don’t make much of a target.
July 24th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Ihope so Caleb, althoug the Lord may punish me and let one take a nip of me, I don’t think I’d be all that tasty though.
July 24th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Mike, there used to be an old comedy song where a gospel singing group came to a church and found out it was a bunch of snake handlers. One of the lines in it is, “Where’s the back door?” “They don’t have one.” “Where do they want one?”
July 24th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
This pastor cut a deal and is out of jail.
November 20th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Caleb Powers - did you ever find out the name of that comedy song? I would love to know it. I have heard the song before but it has been years ago.
Thanks,