She didn’t kill the scorpion, which is a good thing, says veterinarian Adrian Walton.
Instead, Gail Hammond kept the interloping creature alive after finding the hitchhiker in her Vancouver home on May 2 and drove out to deliver it for safekeeping, to Dewdney Animal Hospital in Maple Ridge.
“I give huge kudos to Gail. She not only saved this animal, but drove it to Maple Ridge to make sure it got a chance at a good life. She is the hero of this story,” the hospital said on Facebook.
Hammond said on Facebook she’s a fan of the band The Scorpions and used her finding of the real thing to implore the band to make another stop in Vancouver.
“It’s been 12 years guys!!! Show your fans some love,” she says.
When she first found the bug in her kitchen, she didn’t know what to do.
“Anyone looking for a pet? I have a scorpion trapped behind my fridge. I’m not the killing type. Any ideas?”
Walton said he gets a couple of scorpions into the hospital every year and says it could have come from a recent trip to Cuba, or maybe from imported produce.
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Walton said he gets a couple of scorpions into the hospital every year and says it could have come from a recent trip to Cuba, or maybe from imported produce.
“It’s never a dull day when a woman’s trip to Cuba brings home an undocumented immigrant,” Walton said on YouTube.
Walton initially said the scorpion looked like a striped one usually found in the southern U.S. But later Wednesday, the Victoria Bug Zoo told him it was a type of a bark scorpion, which is more venomous.
“They’re all venomous. The question is how venonomous?” But this scorpion falls within the bark family of scorpions, which is, basically, one of the more toxic species,” Walton said Thursday.
He added that it is more toxic than what he’s used to dealing with, so this month he’ll take it over to the Victoria zoo.
If stung, people are most likely to get really sick, have painful swelling and should get medical treatment, Walton said, and advised that if people are allergic, a sting could be fatal.
“There is a risk associated with it. No matter what, if you get stung, it’s going to hurt like hell, so don’t get stung.”
He added that scorpions are frequent arrivals to the hospital, and usually they’re Arizona striped scorpions, which are about as toxic as a bee or wasp sting.
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