>>Hospitals are only going to have the anti-venoms on hand for species that people are likely to be bitten by.



True, sort of. There are only two antivenoms required to cover all the venomous snakes of GA. However, those two cover every venomous snake in the U.S.



>>Zoos have to produce their own anti-venom or spend ludicrous amounts of money buying it on a regular basis.



Zoos certainly do not produce their own antivenom. A handful collect venom and sell it to the labs that do.



And to make things even more interesting, antivenoms for most snake not native to the U.S. Are far cheaper than the ones for native snakes (by a factor of more than 10 in some cases).



I suspect it has mostly to do with two main things:

1) As mentioned, the availability of antivenom at local hospitals.

2) Concern over introduction of non-native species into the wild (that's why many harmless species are not allowed either).
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