Include

[Aslan]

Originally Posted by Miss_Croft

If you know what you are looking for – it is easy to free handle nearly all the Aussie snakes. If you lift an Eastern Brown, Tiger or Red Bellied Back off the ground from around the tail – it will not be able to strike at you. If you do the same with a python – you will get bitten. That is why they say it is easier to get bitten by a python.

Tell that to Neville Burns, a great snake man, who is now missing a finger as a result of a RBB held by the tail...

It is EXTREMELY easy for an elapid to turn back on it's body and strike your hand. John Cann will tell you that as a snake handler, if an elapid wants to bite you it will bite you - the snake is always better than the handler in that regard...

I have seen elapids free handled a few times - I certainly don't understand taking the risk myself. As JasonL has stated, the risk is very hard to justify. One mistake and your life is ruined.

The guy I know who freehandles has given some of the most informative talks on elapids I have heard - in saying that though, they would have been just as informative had he been standing in a pit with a hook giving them...