NEWSDAY (New York, New York) 25 April 05 'Hot' snakes you shouldn't touch (Denise Flaim)
They're called "hot" snakes. And it's not because their heat lamps have too much wattage.
Venomous snakes inhabit the true fringe of the animal hobby, and a discussion of owning them is often moot, as many states - including our own - prohibit keeping them without a special permit. And if state law doesn't bar them, local ordinances often do.
Red tape aside, keeping a venomous snake requires so much specialized equipment and experience as to render it impossible for all but the most dedicated.
Because venomous snakes must never be "freehandled," experienced hobbyists use implements such as snake hooks and clamp sticks to move them. For particularly hard-to-handle snakes, such as cobras - "a coachwhip with fangs" by one description - keepers use specially designed "shift boxes," which can be closed from a distance, to secure the snake before removing it from its enclosure.
These slithery Houdinis must be housed in secure, lockable cages located in an escape-proof, bolted room.
Finally, responsible owners need to research medical sources of antivenin in case of a bite, not to mention looking far and wide for a vet willing to treat a "hot" herp.
Despite those grave caveats, there are those who seek out such deadly snakes, as well as their lizard and arachnid counterparts, from gila monsters and beaded lizards to scorpions and tarantulas.
"There are two types of people who keep these kinds of animals," says Michael Jacobi of Nashville, Tenn., who owned venomous snakes for a dozen years until he moved to a state that bans them. "Those that have a legitimate reason and those that don't."
The first group keeps venomous species "just because they are fascinating snakes in their own right, not just because they have venom," he says. Not coincidentally, he notes, these animals are the most evolved of their species, and so the most biologically interesting to true aficionados.
The latter - and, unfortunately, larger - group comprises those for whom venomous reptiles "are things that they think make them cool."
For many, keeping an animal that you cannot touch for fear of death seems counterintuitive. But Jacobi, who, through his Web site, www
.SpiderShoppe.com, sells arachnids - including some that are "medically significant," a nice way of saying potentially fatal - points out that physical contact is not the only means of deriving satisfaction from animal companions.
"There are different definitions of a pet that don't include touching," Jacobi says. "People ask me, 'Why would you have a pet that you can't hold or play with?' But how many people who have tropical fish hold them? They're adding some beauty in your house, like houseplants. You don't have to interact with them."
Avoiding a fatal bite is simple, Jacobi says: "Just never, ever touch them with your bare hands - no matter what that stupid Australian does on TV."
Richard D. Bartlett of Gainesville, Fla., co-author of "Vipers: A Guide for the Advanced Hobbyist (Complete Pet Owner's Manual)" (Barron's, $7.95), has kept venomous snakes for 55 years and has never been bitten - "a record I am hoping to retain."
As the subtitle of his book attests, venomous snakes are "definitely not a starter animal." And he strongly suggests that experienced keepers who are interested in them stay away from elapine species such as cobras and coral snakes, whose speed makes them very difficult to manage. A choice that is far safer - a relative term, to be sure - is a viper.
"The viperine snake is not an active predator. It sits and waits in ambush," Barlett says, noting that potential owners should research the "drop-for-drop venom toxicity" of individual species. "These animals are quite secretive and lethargic in most of their mannerisms."
Like Jacobi, Bartlett acknowledges that some people don't understand the appeal of living with an animal that is within striking distance of one's own mortality.
"It seems like an exercise in stupidity, really, but there's always a 'but,' " he says. For him, what prompts that conjunction is the beauty of the often brightly colored animals, as well as their machine-like efficiency on the hunt.
For those who collect these snakes in order to be "super-macho," Bartlett notes with not a little irony that it is often the female that is sturdier, sometimes more than twice the size of her male counterpart.
One option for neutralizing the threat of a bite is venomoid surgery, which removes the venom gland or severs the duct leading to the fang. But such surgical modifications do not "legalize" such snakes where they are outlawed.
Barlett says the most popular "hot" snakes among hobbyists are small rattlers, copperheads and tree vipers. He is partial to the latter, re-creating their arboreal environs with 36-gallon terraria that are stood on end and outfitted with dangling plants such as philodendrons. Because they hydrate themselves in the wild by drinking dew, many of the slender-bodied snakes must be "watered" until they learn how to use a water dish.
Jacobi has mixed feelings about the growing body of legislation that restricts the ownership of "hot" herps. On the one hand, such laws discourage irresponsible "fang freaks" who may find it easy to purchase a dangerous animal from an online importer, an ad in a reptile magazine or a dealer at a herp show. But on the other, they make it difficult for dedicated amateur herpetoculturists who have a genuine interest in studying these creatures.
For his part, Jacobi says he turns away nine out of 10 people who call to inquire about his venomous spiders. "You can tell just from the conversation," he says. "If they say, 'I heard those are really cool - how deadly are they?' they're not getting one."
And for most everyone, that's the best decision.
'Hot' snakes you shouldn't touch