Shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, Hemby stepped out to take Slim, his 2-year-old pit terrier, for a joy ride in his Yamaha Rhino ATV around the Hemby Farms chicken houses off Townsend Drive. But the normally docile dog was in a rage - barking, snarling and driving him back - and wouldn't let him approach the machine. Hemby said he thought the pit had turned on him, but then the reason for the commotion became clear.
Slim wouldn't let Hemby approach the ATV because coiled beneath the vehicle's rear end was a nearly 4-foot Copperhead, Hemby said. The snake made a run for it and Slim was on him, taking the viper in his mouth and performing the classic canine kill by shaking it violently from side to side.
"Today was my lucky day, buddy," said Hemby, 44, a former minister at Union Baptist Church. "When I went to let the gate down, I would have stepped right on top of that thing. It may not have killed me, but who wants to be snake-bit?"
|
|
With pit bulls having such a poor reputation and being seen as unsafe, killer dogs, Hemby said he felt compelled to tell the story of how Slim protected his master. The sour news about the breed almost got to Hemby, who grabbed a shovel off the porch and was about to strike Slim down during his fit over the snake before he realized the dog was just looking out for him.
"There's nothing ever good that comes out in the news about these dogs," he said, sitting on the back of the Rhino holding a happy Slim with one arm. "He protected me. He killed the snake. I couldn't get him away from it. It took me 10 minutes to get him off of it.
"I love the Lord, and I believe he worked through this dog today."
While Slim may be the most faithful pit bill in Lincoln County and he surely saved Hemby from a terribly painful snakebite, calling the dog a "lifesaver" may be a stretch.
Mississippi snake expert Terry Vandeventer said the Copperhead, a member of the pit viper family, delivers a painful, venomous bite, but those bites are very rarely fatal to humans. In fact, among the venomous vipers common in the state, the Copperhead's venom packs the least punch.
Still, the bites are painful. Copperhead venom is hemolytic and destroys red blood cells, releasing hemoglobin into the body fluid and causing hemorrhaging. Copperhead venom does not attack the nervous system.
"Copperhead bites are serious and can ruin your day, but they're not fatal," he said. "There are some stories that go way, way back of people who have died of Copperhead bites, but we really have no evidence in the U.S. of people ever dying from a Copperhead bite. We've had small children, 2 or 3 years old, bitten by Copperheads, and they just kind of work their way through it."
Hemby was worried that Slim was bitten by the defeated Copperhead, but the dog showed no signs of sickness Thursday. Even if Slim had been stricken, Vandeventer said it probably wouldn't matter.
"Generally, dogs are highly resistant to snake bites," he said. "Generally, the dog gets wimpy for a couple of days and wants a lot of attention, but then they get better. Some dogs get bitten all the time - some attack snakes all the time, they just can't leave them alone. A big, muscular dog like a pit bull, if he did get bitten, he may not have even noticed it."
Copperheads are one of the most common species of snakes in Mississippi, Vandeventer said, especially this time of year.
"Almost every Copperhead you find this time of year are males, and often they're fairly good-sized," he said. "This is just a little past the breeding season, and we see lots and lots of males crossing roads in the middle of the day, 90 degrees, looking for a date."
