Over confident snake handlers??

[Chris1]

i have alot of people wanting to bring their kids over to experience snakes first hand, theyre allowed to see all of them, but only handle Loki (4 yr old bredli who can pretty much be used as a skipping rope)

i always ask first if they have pet rats mice or chickens, and i make sure his head end stays away from them, id hate to be the one who turns them from interested to terrified.

for myself, im careless sometimes and get bitten, but thats generally a well deserved bite, mostly feeding related.

ive always wondered if someone gets bitten at a zoo demonstration if they can/do sue?

 

[byron_moses]

Everyone here seems to be bitten by their snake every now and then, as if it's to be expected. What I don't understand is how snake handlers at zoo's/reptile parks can be so confident wrapping 6ft pythons around tourists and children for photos, etc. How can they be so sure that these huge pythons wont snap/constrict and do some damage? Especially considering the tourists are likely to be very inexperienced handlers........

very true mate and imagine if that small child was playing with a pet rat etc before handling it

 

[cris]

I have always wonderd what would happen if the kid had been handling mice or rats then has a olive placed around his/her neck... 0.o

I have seen this happen, although it was a spotted python and it only tried to eat the kids finger :lol:

 

[snakehandler]

We have been doing shows at regional events and people have actually come up to us holding rats, or having rats on their shoulder and wonder why we walk away from them. When we conduct our shows we are within our display pit so we can restrict the number of people who interact with the animals, with parties we ensure only one person at a time handles the animals and only one at a time are present, this is to ensure that we have maximum control over the situation. We are not into the idea of having to drape a bunch of snakes around a persons neck for publicity, or to prove how safe they are.

Almost every event that we go to including schools have stories to tell us of how many snakes they held at once, I ask them (especially schools) would you allow a bunch of dogs around a child unrestrained?...so why let any animal!!! Then we get the stories of children getting bitten by these animals....this is a great way to get reptiles banned in schools and public events!