Missouri Snake Festival Shuts Down After Cobra Disappears

A snake festival in Missouri was canceled Sunday (October 30) after an Egyptian cobra went missing from the venue, according to FOX 2 Now.

Before the doors opened for the second day of Venom Fest in Moscow Mills, a vendor found one of his containers had been moved. Looking closer, he discovered that the container was also empty. However, it was still sealed.

“They’re all in sealed containers. That’s what’s making it very difficult to believe that this was a mistake,” Micky Meyer of Show-Me-Reptiles said. “The snake didn’t put the lid back on and the snake didn’t move its container two feet.”

Bill Keith with the St. Louis Herpetological Society, which focuses on educating the public about reptiles, said that he believes the cobra was more likely stolen than escaped. Plus, the police agree.

“There’s no dust trails,” said Meyer. “There’s really no evidences of a snake being loose in there because a lot of times when they get loose they poop, too. We haven’t seen any evidence of a loose snake. … I just don’t think we’re going to be doing any of these venomous shows anymore.”

Keith and the St. Louis Herpetological Society already had mixed feelings about the event before the incident.

“They’re beautiful animals … We just didn’t want to be associated with it,” Keith said. “We thought it was a bad idea because so much can go wrong.”