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Speak Out: Where do you stand on “free handling” of venomous snakes.

173 opinions on this subject. Enter your opinion at the bottom of this page.
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Anonymous on 2004-03-16
the only good snake venomous or not ,is one that has been run over with a lawn mower,perferably more then once.

Anonymous on 2004-03-15
I've got the best way to "handle" any venomous reptile. It's a special tool, great for creatures like this, and it has ".50 Desert Eagle" written along the side of its "business end". You people are nuts!!! Do you realize in the countries/areas where these things come from they are feared (rightfully) and loathed, probably even killed?? Why in the name of .... whatever... would you want to have any such thing imported for the purpose of bringing it into your home?????? Shows what this world's coming to. Very very strange site for a , clearly very strange, bunch of people...

snakemn on 2004-03-04
ive been free handling sense i was about 16 i think that after a few years of learning about the snakes nature its ok but BEWARE!!!!!!!! you will proabably get tagged some time or another i got bit by a monacled cobra just over 3ft in lenght the problem is that id owned him for over a year and free handling him had not gotten bit i got cocky and figured i was untouchable i spent a week recovering in the hospitle its not for everybody just think is it for you?
Ethan snakemn

rattlesnake2 on 2004-02-24
Depends on what you intend doing with the snake while you are handling it. Free handling as was just described by StillStrivin is just a game of chance, if you handle snakes in this manner it is only a matter of time before you art tagged by the animal you are handling. If you do it with tubes, tongs or a hook, you increase your chances of not being tagged by at least 90%.

djtrivedi on 2004-02-23
Dear Friends, from 1986 I started handling all kinds of Snakes....in INDIA..but in 1998 I was bitten by a Cobra...after that I wanted to get rid of my fear, so I tried a new technique..I decided to try handling Cobras without hook or tongs..in trying to master that, I forgot all my grudges against them....and at the same time I saw a new thing that CObras are highly sensitive to the touch and vibrations of our hands...and then I understood that to crush the head of any poisonous snake is very painful and a cruel thing to do to them. I do keep a hook all the time I handle them but hardly use it. I dont do it for the Adrenaline I do it for the sake of their safety. This is what I feel...!!!

ghost on 2004-02-23
I agree venomous snake handling is incredibly dangerous, As for myself its a way of life. What defines a expert? I live in central florida and have grown up handling non and venomous snakes. my advice, educate yourselves. Strike distaces and size are most important!! And for the amatuers: kevlar gloves!!

Mitch on 2004-02-16
Does anyone here prefere hooks rather then tongs or tongs rather then hooks? If you do, what are some of the reasons? I'm debating if I should get a pair of tongs or a hook. P.S. I mostly deal with cottonmouths, Eastern Diamondbacks and just overall heavy bodied snakes.

StillStrivin on 2004-02-04
Well as an Amercan I feel it should and is supposed to be every persons living here's right , to handle snakes if so desired. Providing they do not indanger the children and such, I really do not see any harm in it. I keep a non venomous but have not gotten into venomous but have handled them freely, been bitten, and grew up around venomos because of my family's inherit religious practices. Where I originally am from my grandfather was a snake handler at my family's church and was bittin over and over again . Also, I should like to make some points , call them ol wive tales or just yarns or what have you, but my own grandfater, as I said, handled venomos routenely and kept in his home as well several diamonbacked rattlers, canebrake rattlers, or cottonmouths, all the time. These he kept in simply locked wood boxes with a breathable top, of some type of steel mesh I suppose ( I was a little boy and don't recall every fine detail) , and would feed to these serpents usually 3 mice or rats per time. One of my earliest memory is seeing grandfather free handle at his home which was very near my own. Now, he used to say I recall, that there were some "tricks" which snake handlers would sometimes use to avoid gettin a bite. Such as: to spray upon or cover the hands and wrists and forearms with the scent of bitter apples, which serpent hates and won't want to sink his teeth into. Also, to keep serpent in colder than normal temp ranges thruout the night prior to services following day when they'll be handled (cold produced sluggishness, the old timers said), and to feed serpent heartily before (maybe night before or 2 night before) he's going to be handle at service (food produces sluggishness too, but he may puke on you and of course could still bite at any time). Also to not have fear in your heart, to trust fully in the Lord Christ to protect you, then when you touch serpent he senses no fear, and believe you me many of these old timers from around where I'm from would free handle any serpent around and just take their chances. They don't ever use no tongs, hooks, etc, and I've seen old men with the Spirit on them dancing with diamondbacks on their heads, faces, in their hair, one old man used to put it down his shirt and just let it crawl. I don't ever recall seeing biting going on, and believe you me these were not what are called venomid snakes today, that is to say they had they fangs and the venom and plenty of it. Proper handling know how was or is all you really need. You just know how to pin it and what lenth of tail end to grab, or thereabouts of course exact science is not necessary on this, and then you support the midbody with you other hand, and there you have very easy free handling. If you get bit, most of the time they won't kill you anyway, or if it does, its just your time. My belief therfore is for free handling always, and never to touch serpents with ill intent in your heart, or with the hook and the tong, and like I say, this is clearly a basic American freedom due to our Consitutional basic principal of freeness of religion and such religius practice as that may entail barring of course the killing of a human being to appease God, for example. As that would clearly be criminal, in any country. I don't know if you all had ever heard of my grandfather's tricks for free handlin to minimize bites, but they did seem to work for him as he passed at 85 yrs old, of natural causes, nothing to do with snakebites. Like I say though, he did take bites of course sevral times but I even recall him laying in a sickbed one day and what's he doing? He's laying there fondlin one of his serpents. So, to each the own.

Geronimo on 2004-01-25

Geronimo on 2004-01-25

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