Her will to live defies adder
FACEBOOK has launched an alert system which sends notifications to every user in the area when a child goes missing.
The Australian Federal Police and Facebook AMBER Alert system will use GPS to send an image and details of the missing child to people in the vicinity of where the child was last seen. It works similar to a cyclone warning.
The AFP believes it will be a vital tool to help find and return abducted children.
About 15 million Australians are on Facebook and police believe the new system will help in the first crucial hours of a child’s abduction.
Facebook director of trust and safety Emily Vacher, a former FBI agent, said that when a child went missing it was important to get information to the public as quickly as possible.
“By getting the right information to the right people, at the right time, through AMBER Alerts on Facebook, we hope to help reunite missing children with their families faster,” Ms Vacher said.
The AMBER Alert will remain active for 24 hours, unless cancelled by police. The system is already in place in a number of other countries, including the US, UK, Canada, the Netherlands, South Korea, Greece and Mexico.
DAVID HURLEY THE solicitor who represented Daniel Morcombe’s killer Brett Peter Cowan is behind bars after pleading guilty to fraud and other charges.
Tim Meehan, 41, pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court yesterday to one count of aggravated fraud and eight of fraudulent falsification of records. He was remanded in custody to be sentenced on July 13. The charges related to the dishonest application of monies in excess of $ 30,000, belonging to Meehan’s former employer Bosscher Lawyers, as well as the falsification of costs agreements and tax invoices, the Crime and Corruption Commission said. BILLABONG Sanctuary is again scaling up with a deadly new exhibit.
The wildlife park yesterday reintroduced some reptiles to its refurbished snake exhibit, which now features the top three most venomous species in the world – the inland taipan, the eastern brown snake and the coastal taipan, also known as the eastern taipan.
A similar exhibit was wiped out by Cyclone Yasi in 2011, with the venomous snakes removed for safety reasons.
But over the past few months, staff have worked to strip down the area, reframe it and make it escape- proof so the reptiles can go back on display to the public.
“Visitors to our region want to see venomous snakes and two of the three species – the eastern brown and coastal taipan – can be found in Townsville,” Billabong Sanctuary reptile handler Chris Benstead said.
Mr Benstead said relocating the reptiles to their new home was a delicate exercise.
“We all take precautions not to get bitten with long pants and boots but generally once we bag them up they calm down and then we just tip them into their new enclosure,” he said.
The revamped exhibit will also have snake safety and first aid information to help members of the public if they do ever come across a snake in the wild. The venomous snake show, adjacent to the new exhibit, takes place daily at noon. A MAGNETIC Island snake handler who survived a bite from a death adder has said she “couldn’t die” because she had not updated her will.
Jan Phillips, 64, said death as a result of a bite from one of the world’s most venomous s snakes was not an option.
“As I was being stabilised at t the ( Magnetic Island Primary Care) Clinic, I realised that I hadn’t updated my will, so I thought, ‘ bugger this, I can’t die yet’,” Ms Phillips said. “So I did exactly what the staff at the clinic told me to do until I was transferred to the Townsville Hospital by helicopter to be administered antivenin.”
Ms Phillips, who has been a snake handler for nearly a decade, said she acknowledged she was lucky to be alive.
“I full well know how deadly death adders are,” she said.
“I know that not that many people live to tell how they survived a bite from such a deadly snake. I’ve never felt so much pain in my life. I wanted to cut my hand off the pain was so excruciating.”
The common death adder is found in eastern and coastal southern Australia – in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and SA.
Ms Phillips, a mother of three and grandmother of two, was bitten as she attempted to relocate the death adder from a Nelly Bay home in April.
“I’ve done this countless times before,” she said. “But it was two seconds of distraction that led to the snake biting me.
“The lady ( who had the snake in her front yard) said something to me and I foolishly turned to her, and in those two seconds the snake bit me on the hand.”
Despite the life- threatening bite, Ms Phillips, who works at the island’s Marlin Bar, is adamant she’ll continue relocating snakes from homes.
“I still love snakes and I’m passionate about ensuring they are not killed when found near or in people’s homes, but are relocated,” she said.
Ms Phillips praised clinic staff and Townsville Hospital for saving her life.
In just minutes clinic staff compressed and dressed the wound and within 30 minutes Ms Phillips said she was in a helicopter en route to hospital.
Ms Phillips was administered two rounds of antivenin in the emergency department and was admitted to ICU.
“That was a once- in- a- lifetime experience,” she said.
“I never intend that to happen to me ever again. I still haven’t updated my will, though.”