King Cobra spotted in East Grinstead could be responsible for missing cats

A man who believes he saw a deadly cobra crossing a footpath outside Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, Sussex, fears recent cases of missing cats could be linked to the reptile. Trevor Gamble, 49, saw a snake outside the hospital at 11.40am last Sunday morning as he was walking to his home which is on the same road. Mr Gamble said he “almost earned a Darwin award for inadvertently doing something really stupid” after bending down to get a closer look, not believing at the time it could be dangerous because it was in Britain. When the snake reared up and “spread what looked like a hood” around its head he suddenly panicked and stood stock still.



He explained: “I’ve got a bit of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) about losing things so I always look behind myself every now and then. I turned around to look back and I saw the snake come onto the path as if it had been waiting for me to pass.” Mr Gamble then lived up to his name and decided to try and grab the snake by the tail to get a better look at its markings when it reared up and “its head came up to just above my knees”. He added: “It was swaying there looking right at me; I had my heart in my mouth trying not to breathe. I just held my breath and kept completely still. It was a bit more than an arm’s length away from me, then it just went down and carried on going, obviously deciding I wasn’t a threat. That’s when I legged it.”

Mr Gamble described the snake as having a white underside and face with a dark grey body, which is typical of some types of King Cobras. The snakes have enough venom in a single bite to bring down an elephant or kill 20 people. Mr Gamble was so concerned he dialled 999 but was told it wasn’t an emergency so should call 101, the police non-emergency number, which he later did. Police advised him to contact the RSPCA who passed him on to a company called Proteus Reptile Trust, who deal with the welfare of captive snakes. Staff there explained they do not deal with snakes spotted in the wild. A spokeswoman for the RSPCA has since said they were unable to send out an inspector because of a lack of resources meaning they would only do so if they could be directed to the snakes exact location.



Mr Gamble said: I’m just worried because there have been a lot of missing cat posters up in this area recently and I’m thinking maybe they have been dinner for this snake. And I haven’t seen any rats or mice recently either thinking about it." The RSPCA spokeswoman said: "Because of the volume of calls, our inspectors cannot go out looking for a snake when we don't know where it is but we would ask that if anyone sees it, they could monitor it from a safe distance so we can come out and collect it quickly and take it into safe care. As we only have one inspector per 100,000 people and often only one inspector covering a county we do not have the resources to scour the wood looking for a snake. In this instance the call was logged as an advice call. We cannot identify snakes over the phone which is why we sometimes ask people to ring other specialised animal welfare organisations." Mr Gamble said his friends have been somewhat sceptical of his claims. He said: "I told a few friends what I saw and they said 'Trev, had you been drinking?' I said 'no, but I needed a couple of pints afterwards'."