I had to kill a snake last week.

I start by saying this as I have recently seen that the normal snake ID threads very quickly resolve into: Did the snake live or why did the photographer kill this beautiful wonder of nature? With a handful of comments about armchair snake pokers and wanna-be Steve Irwins.

For the record I don't kill snakes on sight, when we have had Keelbacks inside the house previously I have caught with caution, safely and without harming the snake then released them a rice field away from the house. Likewise with common fish snakes (like this) I see when walking the dogs along the river I flick them into the undergrowth with my walking stick rather than smash them into the next life as they will otherwise be squashed by the next farmer going to work on his motorbike. We had one visit the house just before Christmas, again that was flicked into the undergrowth and disappeared.

The situation in this case was that I was awoken by frantic barking of our new pup (Only three months old and in her cage, the reason she is in a cage is the subject of another thread.) around 9am. I'm the only person at home and assume that she is desperate to visit the toilet, she has only been in a cage a few days/week and will not soil her sleeping area - good dog!

As I come to the seating area outside the kitchens where her cage is I see the unmistakable profile and movement of a light brown snake under/behind her cage, I'm wearing a wrap-around towel and ill-fitting flip-flops. As I pulled her cage away from the area the snake moves up against some netting over some rice sacks (I assume that the snake has been attracted by the smell of rodents visiting the sacks or residual smell of rabbits that have been in that cage before?) and then presents the classic "I'm a cobra" question mark pose, flattened neck in warning or ready to strike.

Immediately I dash inside to put on my sunglasses having had recent conversations about spitting cobras with a local expat friend and return with a six foot pole in one hand and machete in the other. As I try to hit the snake it moves and is caught in a box-style rat trap. Not very efficient or humane but putting the trapped snake in a water barrel for 15 minutes killed it, the iron rod through it's body helped.

Had it been a harmless snake it would have been ushered towards the nearby fields, but being a cobra I consider it deadly enough that it's being alive near the village is not conducive to a safe environment. We have kids and an elderly MIL that would not fare well being bitten by 'accident'. There is no question about letting it live and later during the day many villagers gave the thumbs-up after hearing that I had removed a threat from the village.

So, inter-spaced with responses condemning my action could someone confirm or correct my identification please.

This snake was just over one metre long, and had a darker pattern on the back of it's flattened neck.

The pictures at the bottom of this page echoes when I tackle snake issues.

I see that Monocled Cobras are not a threatened species.

King Cobra?

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/King_cobra

I don't think it's a monocled cobra.

This is a monocled cobra...

(...and I didn't kill it )

Edit:

It could be a female - the link you gave shows the females look quite different from the males.

If it's in the house, it's too close. KCs are territorial, and may think your house is part of it's hunting area. I'd have had it killed without pause. Near the house I encourage them to move on. Non venomous snakes get to live.