gday, now heres a different side to the story,, i do reptile shows in the sydney area. wont say for which company,, now we have many many different species of snakes we use for eg, carpets, diamonds, childrens, spotted, bredli, olives etc. For the time i have been doing this i have never had a snake bite either myself or a child or even adult at a show, i put it down to the factors
1: These snakes have been doing these shows all of their lives, they have been conditioned to the "party" environment so dont seem to be as stressed as a snaked would be if it had never been handled before and then all of a sudden bam theres 50 ppl.
2:I think most of the time its the keepers instinct that stops most bites from occuring, i know when my snakes are looking stressed and ready to go away, i think by reading their body language we can be able to know what you can and cant get away with. This also comes down with experience with each individual snake knowing their behaviours
3: Confidence confidence confidence. The handler must have this in themselves and in the snake out on show, so when they do go out they arent half thinking im going to get bitten then half thinking on what the snake is doing, when doing these shows at all times the handlers attention must be on what the snake is doing even if they arent holding it,, i let people hold the snakes by themselves but am always focused what the snake looks like it mite do, and am always close enough to intervene before a bite does occur,
Though to be fair i dont think you can give a 100% guarantee that the snake wont bite but if you do the right things you do minimise the chance of a bite but as always there are always some knobs around that try to test their luck
