12/1/2023 0 Comments Most beutifl rhinoceros viper"He liked it so much that he started going off into the woods and bringing back snails to put into the aquarium," she said. Morton purchased an aquarium and some goldfish to redirect her son's attention. "He was fascinated by them and played with them every chance he got, which was, unfortunately, quite often." "I hate to say this, but his first pets were roaches," Mrs. His mother, Yvonne Morton, recalled how his attachment to animals began. But his wife made him get rid of them after the birth of their second child last year. He had started a zoo in his current apartment - mostly a collection of snakes captured in Oxon Run Creek. But Morton's interest in animals has remained intact. The public housing complex where he lived as a boy was demolished several years ago. So when this opportunity to sling a little dope came up, I took it, just to put food on the table." I had children to feed and no way to feed them. "Next to almost dying from the snakebite, that was the low point in my life," Morton said. Morton had also been arrested on drug charges and served 2 1/2 years in the Lorton Reformatory. "Whenever I see one of those television shows with the guys playing with snakes and alligators, I say, 'That's it! That's the job I've always wanted!' Except that I never knew that you could make a living out of doing stuff like that." "I'd love to get a position at some pet store or in some veterinarian's office or even at the zoo," he said. After holding several jobs at various fast-food restaurants, he is unemployed. Morton, now 34, lives with his wife and children in an apartment in Southeast, not far from where he grew up. I saw the snakes as being a part of nature, and nobody could really own nature." What I saw was something that was so beautiful that I had to be around it all the time. "But at the time, I didn't see it as stealing. "I know what I did was wrong," Morton said. "Once inside, I saw all of these snakes and frogs and turtles and alligators. "I used a rock to break the glass front door and when I didn't hear an alarm go off, I became very happy," he said. He said he overcame his fear by pretending to be "Daniel in the lions' den" and proceeded to the Reptile House. Two, I kept hearing lions and I didn't know if they let them out at night." "I was nervous, and two things concerned me: One, it was dark. "I jumped the fence to get into the zoo," said Morton, who was 16 at the time. He retraced for me his steps on that fateful night 19 years ago and finally answered a question that has bugged me all these years: How did he do it? I recently caught up with Morton and last week took a trip with him back to the zoo. Three weeks after the near-fatal bite, Louis was released in good condition from Children's Hospital. National Airport was kept open past closing for the first time to receive the lifesaving serum. Doctors at Children's Hospital got in touch with snake bite experts throughout Africa, home of the Gaboon viper, and the National Guard eventually flew in antivenin from Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. police, and an international effort to save Louis ensued. Jane White, the bus driver, notified D.C. I told the bus driver, 'Please, don't let me die.' " "Then I noticed two holes in the garbage bag and all of sudden blood started coming from my nose and mouth. "I was getting off the bus and I thought a tree limb had fallen on me," Morton recalled. The Gaboon vipers were to be the crown jewels in a collection of birds, bats, fish, mice and garden snakes that he had captured during forays into Oxon Run Creek. Young Louis's plan: build a zoo in a vacant apartment in his public housing complex. He'd placed them in a plastic garbage bag, slung it over his shoulder and boarded a Metro bus back to his neighborhood in Southeast Washington. He'd broken into the Reptile House and walked off with two Gaboon vipers, one of the most venomous species in the world. And I'm not going to lie: I'd still love to have it."įor a few exhilarating moments in April 1983, Morton actually possessed the snake. "It looks like the same one that bit me," he said in a reverent whisper, bending down to look the viper in the eye. What I saw was something that was so beautiful that I had to be around it all the time." Louis Morton entered the Reptile House at the National Zoo and headed straight for the Gaboon viper. But at the time, I didn't see it as stealing.
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