NEWS-JOURNAL (Daytona Beach, Florida) 03 December 06 Venom collector deadly serious about his passion (Kari Cobham)
Deland: As Carl Barden sweeps a foot-long eastern diamondback onto the tabletop, he pins the snake's writhing head with a hook.
Grabbing it quickly with a bare hand, he deftly presses its protracted fangs through plastic wrap pulled taut over a cocktail glass.
The yellow venom slides downward and pools at the bottom before the snake disappears into its plastic container.
Deadly? Yes. Worth the risk? Definitely.
It's why the 42-year-old professional venom collector is gaining national attention and may be the subject of two upcoming television shows.
Discovery Channel is scheduled to feature Barden in "Hazard Pay," a new series on workers who put themselves in harm's way every day. The production crew sets up shop in his four-room lab in DeLand filled with 700 venomous snakes today and Monday. The show is expected to air in February or mid-March.
Co-producer Michelle Niland said the channel chose Barden because he works with the world's most dangerous snakes -- 40 species of mambas, cobras, cottonmouths and copperheads, among others.
"We try to find jobs that people may not know very much about, but that we can't live without," Niland said in an e-mail.
But the channel also was intrigued by the fact that the commercial pilot has nearly a dozen stories of routine venom extractions gone wrong in the past 10 years.
In August 2004, a green mamba bit Barden's right index finger as he tried to pin it down. Earlier this year, Barden fell on top of an eastern diamondback after twisting his ankle. The snake sank its fangs into the side of his face. Barden's encounter with a black mamba may earn him the spotlight "Dangerous Encounters: Deadliest Snakes" on the National Geographic Channel airing at 9 p.m. Dec. 15.
Barden, who's become highly allergic to snake venom, conducts up to 400 extractions a week and provides venom for medical research and anti-venin outlets in the U.S.
A University of Florida study found that of the 7,000 venomous snake-bite victims in the U.S. annually, 200 of those are in Florida.
Barden is a part of a small group of six extraction labs in the country and about 30 in the world.
While working in the lab, he thinks less about the danger than he does about the snakes' potential for good.
"I don't see it as dangerous," he said. "Risk is a managed event to the level it almost doesn't exist."
Barden's been bitten enough times to have a personal relationship with 911 dispatch, EVAC Ambulance and an ER physician at Florida Hospital DeLand.
He's even hatched an automatic survival plan to get him to the hospital alive.
While Barden describes snake bites as "no fun," he loves the reptiles and the chance to save lives with their venom.
"It's my absolute passion," he said.
His fascination with the slithering reptiles began at 5 years old when he first collected snakes and frogs. He parlayed that love into a job as a reptile keeper at the Sanford Zoo in 1983 and by the early 1990s had his bachelor's degree in liberal science from the University of Florida.
Previous work as a flight instructor helped him earn enough to expand his snake collection. Now Barden works as a full-time commercial pilot to provide the steady income that producing snake venom does not.
He expects to double his 700-snake trove during the next few years and said he's excited about the recent attention from the two major wildlife channels.
"Any positive view we can give to the animal, we do," he said.
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