Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I started a prevous thread below and just recently had a chance to read the responses. In asking the questions I was seriously interested in your professional opinions. I have no venomous experience but I have tons of curiousity! Thank you, especially for the physical aspects of devenomation. I am glad to know it has no adverse effects for the snake. Not surprising to run into a bit of politics involving the public. Again thank you for humoring my curiosity! Oh, and I am a wrestling fan and remember watching Jake the snake Roberts and the python!!!

Yeah, touchy subject. I was always the one arguing against devenomizing but it's kind of a pointless argument. People are going to do what they are going to do.....no matter what.

Putting the snake through surgery and chancing it's life is hard for me to grasp. Whatever people's reasoning for having venomoids(hopefully it's not free handling) is their own. I don't agree with the practice and folks ought to think twice about owning venomous if they are only considering venomoids. I think owning a venomoid would make the handler lax with handling. I have been keeping venomous for only 4 years and give them the berth the deserve.

I treat all mine as if they were a nuclear bombs....just waiting to be dropped!!!!!

I could ramble on but this isn't the right forum and frankly I am tired of the argument......all it does is publicize venommoids.

I may make some enemies here but I keep two Red Diamond rattlesnakes that are venomoid. I am simpley too old to endure another snake bite. I've had them for four years. They are not toys. And I don't know about mixing wrestling and hot snakes. These snakes hot or not should not be show-boated or idealized. If you cannot keep yourself consistanly fascinated by your captive alone without outside aproval that's a danger sign right there. And may I say that keeping a venomoid rattlesnake HAS tended to make me complacent with these keeps. The hard truth. S.

.Quote" And I don't know about mixing wrestling and hot snakes. These snakes hot or not should not be show-boated or idealized. If you cannot keep yourself consistanly fascinated by your captive alone without outside aproval that's a danger sign right there. And may I say that keeping a venomoid rattlesnake HAS tended to make me complacent with these keeps. The hard truth. S."

Oh well,what can I say. I was very young and got paid a lot of money to let Jake"the snake" devenomize one of my cobras and use it on TV. Being a very rich guy,he could afford the top of the line vet,not some butcher. I didn't let him do it because I didn't know how to properly handle a hot animal and was in fear of being bit,which seems to be your situation.I did it for a lot of money,period. My cobra lived a long happy life as a retired TV star.lol. Again, just the cold, hard truth.

Sadly enough, I do remember watching wrestling when Jake let a king cobra gnaw on the arm of a fellow wrestler who he had tied up in the ropes. I cringed when I saw it.

Posted by: TJP at Sat Aug 23 07:46:04 2008 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

Quote"Sadly enough, I do remember watching wrestling when Jake let a king cobra gnaw on the arm of a fellow wrestler who he had tied up in the ropes. I cringed when I saw it."

I must say that the King cobra was not my animal and I also cringed.
He stuck to his word when he told me that no harm at all would come to my monocle cobra. He used the king after my snake. Had I seen the way the king was treated, he wouldn't have used mine.

A venomoid is a topic of a lot of debate, but unfortunately a lot of it deals with subjective opinions. A venomoid can be a snake that has been devenomized by three types of individuals; a licensed veterinarian, an experience hobbyists, or a person who figures he can make a profit doing something without much thinking. The last two are not very popular by anyone debating the subject, but the opinions about experienced licensed vets doing adenectomies and ductectomies vary depending on other factors. Ethics, reparative regrowth, animal cruelty, HOT vs. venomoid, educational shows, free handling, and others are many of the factors. In conclusion, a buyer will make a choice about buying a venomoid from one of the three individuals based on one or more factors. Of course, everyone knows money is what drives the business and as long as there is a market for these animals there will always be three individuals attempting to benefit from a growing the demand. I only hope that those who choose the venomoids have taken the time to do a true risk assessment and evaluate each factor and most of all the individual selling the animal. For the rest, there are more than one reason not to buy a venomoid.

anyway, this discussion has its own forum

Melissa

As time goes on, I think we're seeing less and less garage hackers performing the surgery and one or two vets cornering the market. No matter how you look at it, unless it is a licensed vet that is performing the surgery, it is ILLEGAL for a private individual to do. That being said, you're also seeing sales of venomoids dropping compared to what they were years ago.
Who wants to pay $300 for a venomoid pygmy or copperhead? I mean, c'mon. And, who really needs a venomoid pygmy or copperhead? Is the danger really there or is it something someone just wants to be able to pick up?
A person might as well find a vet that can make their dangerous ball python non-constricting.

Boy,I'm not sure I want to jump into this.Anyway 15 years ago I kept several high strung wild caught venomous snakes such as Vipera Raddei.I used to pin them and assit feed or pull eyecaps off or medicate while my wife held the body,but that was the only time such snakes were picked up.It was no big deal.Temple vipers were just picked up free hand.Probably not a very good Idea.I still catch a couple c. atrox every now and again out here in CA.But I'm also getting older and with that comes slower reaction times.It would be nice to have venemoids.Not to handle,but just to have a little extra safety.On a copperhead,probably not.But on somthing big and high strung I think it would be okay in some cases.It all depends on each Individual.How comfortable you are with your own skill level.Would I think twice about pinning and picking up a copperhead? Probably not.Would I do the same with a cobra? Nope don't even want it in the house.I personally would treat a venemoid just like it was locked and loaded.Anyway just a thought.Everybody have a great day.