"Brutalizing a snake to make up for one's lack of skill is just wrong"

While I generally agree with your statement it may also come down to how risk adverse the person is. From an insurance and liability perspective venomiod snakes would be more desireable. IF a greater good is achieved AND the proceedure is done properly by a skilled vet I wouldn't be casting stones at the individual!

Still, the big question to me is why use venomous snakes at all? I fail to see how taking all the neccesary percautions and establishing a buffer zome between yourself the snakes and the audience does anything but re-enforce peoples perceptions about snakes. When I was doing programs I simply used native non-venomous that people could handle if they choose and covered venomous animals with a brief slide presentation. The presentations weren't "sensational" but that wasn't my goal. Education was.

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