Today it seems like there is a plethora of people who think that it is okay for them to free handle venomous snakes because "they have years of experience." Before I proceed, let me be clear, I am not saying that you do not have years of experience but if you are free handling you either have bad experience or are disregarding your experience.

Even non-venomous snake keepers understand that even the most predictable reptiles can be unpredictable. I have had an old corn snake bite a kid during an educational talk and a black and white tegu clamp onto my hand shortly after I uttered the words "it will not bite". Learning from those mistakes, I know never to assume that an animal will not bite and anytime I am asked now, I respond with "anything with a mouth can bite"

Carrying these lessons over to the world of venomous it is clear that even the most "tame" of cobras or vipers is capable of biting and the risk is lots of pain, enormous debt from medical bills, and very possibly death. If there was even a one in a million chance of the snake biting and I could avoid free handling it, I would. There is no need for you to get that picture of you holding a cobra for your facebook page. There is no need for you to show your friends how cool/macho you are by picking up that rattlesnake. There is no need for you to test your faith in god by grabbing up a few copperheads (in the case of the snake handling churches). I have yet to hear of one single good excuse for free handling a venomous snake- and believe me, I have heard a lot. Most of the time the default excuse is "I have experience and you don't know what you're talking about". I don't claim to know everything but this I do know: IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW MUCH EXPERIENCE YOU HAVE IF THERE IS A VENOMOUS SNAKE IN YOUR BARE HANDS. Animals are by nature unpredictable and if you look at all of the famous animal handlers from Steve Irwin to Timothy Treadwell (that guy that lived with the bears) they made the fatal mistake of thinking they could predict an animals behavior. You might be able to most of the time but eventually, you will be wrong about that snake that "never bites" and it will end badly.

Do yourself a favor and use a snake hook.

Sincerely,
Chris Hartmann.