Here’s what they are reading about in a Tasmanian paper early Tuesday morning…

Man bitten by Walmart rattlesnake

From correspondents in Miami [Florida, USA]
July 08, 2008 09:33am
A posionous rattlesnake hidden among leafy plants in the garden section of a Walmart store in Florida sprang out and bit a man who was shopping there.

The man was taken to hospital after the 30cm pygmy rattlesnake bit him in the right hand while he was looking at the plants at the store in Pembroke Pines, Florida, about 50km north of Miami.

“This is an isolated incident and we’re taking precautions to make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” said Walmart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie.

“To ensure the wellbeing of our customers, we immediately closed the garden centre to enable animal control to do a thorough search of the area. The garden centre was reopened once we were convinced it was safe to do so.”

The Miami Herald newspaper reported that the man received intravenous anti-venom treatment at Miramar Hospital and was expected to make a full recovery.

The pygmy rattlesnake’s poisonous bite could be fatal for an elderly person or small child, medics said.

This all goes to show that finding a poisonous snake in the plants for sale at Wal-Mart isn’t always an urban legend.

And to reinforce that thought, Jonathan Rees over at The Writing on the Wall, clearly knows how to use Google (it’s an inside joke). You can visit Rees for the reference urls and more, for he is to be congratulated for his quick assemblage:

John Page ended up in the emergency room at Wuestoff Hospital after he was attacked by a pygmy rattlesnake last November [2006]. He talked publicly for the first time, Friday, about what happened.

“I pulled my hand out of the shopping cart and, to my surprise, there is a 14-to-18 inch snake hanging off of my finger,” he said.

– “Victim Making Demands Of Wal-Mart After Snake Bite,” WFTV9.com, February 22, 2007.

All she wanted was a flower, but instead a woman said she got a snake bite.

Delaine Jarrell was looking through the plants in the garden center at a Jacksonville Wal-Mart on Wednesday, when a snake sunk its fangs into her arm and didn’t let go without a fight.

– “Snake Bites Woman Walking Through Wal-Mart Garden Center,” WFTV9.com, June 5, 2006.

A man was treated with anti-venin [sic] after he was bit by a pygmy rattlesnake in the garden department of a Central Florida Wal-Mart, according to Local 6 News.

Officials said a man was reaching into a plant Monday at a Wal-Mart in Sanford, Fla., located on U.S. Highway 192 when the snake bit his hand.

– “Pygmy Rattlesnake Bites Man At Wal-Mart,” Local6.com (Orlando), July 25, 2006.

Jonathan Rees adds that “lest you think this only happens in Florida:”

A 44 year old man was bitten by a snake Monday afternoon while shopping at the Wal Mart in Marana.

That’s when a 3.5 foot long Western Diamondback Rattlesnake bit him in the forearm.

– “Snake bite at Wal-Mart,” KVOA.com (Tuscon, AZ), March 29, 2007.