The venomous

debate

In light of recent events, keeping venomous reptiles clearly isn’t for everyone, and those who do keep potentially dangerous species take on a great responsibility. So what do prospective venomous keepers need to know, and who should be allowed to keep these animals anyway? We speak to venomous specialists around the world to find out more.

‘The most common question asked when discussing venomous reptiles with normal people is, “why would anyone want to keep something that could kill you?”’ says Tony Wigley, co-founder of Responsible Reptile Keeping. ‘Although, those asking the question wouldn’t bat an eyelid if someone wanted to keep a dog – and domestic dogs kill and injure people all the time.’

It’s a good point well made. Nevertheless, most people’s opinions on venomous reptiles are fuelled by emotion rather than evidence. It’s a big problem for venomous reptile enthusiasts like Torben Touwslager and Tino Insing who run a Netherlands-based training facility, Responsible with Venomous. ‘Let’s put the risks into perspective,’ says Torben when we met at the Terraristika reptile show in Hamm, Germany. ‘Compare venomous reptile keeping with driving cars, scuba diving or operating heavy machinery. Keeping venomous reptiles is not that much different, because we are allowed to do these activities so long as we demonstrate competence and comply with certain safety conditions. And sometimes these activities are legally regulated. We might need suitable training and a licence which proves we are competent enough to protect ourselves and other people from danger. We can never eliminate all risk from life, so training and licensing some activities is a sensible approach.’

King cobra (Ophiophagus hannah)
Credit: Responsible with Venomous

A few bad apples

Sadly, not all venomous keepers are as conscientious or competent as Torben and Tino, and while issues are extremely rare, they do occasionally occur. Such incidents often incite a media frenzy which invariably sensationalises the situation and gives the responsible venomous-keeping community a bad name. ‘It’s a classic case of the foolish few spoiling things for the responsible majority,’ says Tino.

So what kind of people keep venomous reptiles, and are there people who shouldn’t? Tino explains, ‘There are plenty of incredible non-venomous species people could keep instead, so it’s reasonable to ask why some people are so attracted to keeping venomous. Well, there are many reasons, but only a few are responsible justifications. For some, it’s that a specific species draws their attention – perhaps because it is beautiful, maybe it has interesting behaviour, or because it has earned a special status. This is understandable and fair enough, the urge to keep something venomous should never be just because the animal is dangerous. Venomous animals must never be kept for an adrenaline rush or because it makes someone feel powerful.’

Ray Morgan is an American documentary filmmaker who is also on the board of several organisations studying venomous reptiles. His 2016 film, The Venom Interviews, explored venomous herpetology and the people involved in working with venomous reptiles. ‘I was really disgusted and troubled by the way venomous reptiles and their handlers were being portrayed in the mainstream media. The idea behind the film was to get rid of the hyperactive host and haunted-house-themed music to see if I could still end up with a compelling story.’ Ray’s film succeeds in its aims and is highly acclaimed by experts and laymen alike. In stark contrast to the conscientious and responsible handlers portrayed in Ray’s film, some of today’s venomous handlers posting on social media aren’t doing themselves, or the responsible venomous-keeping community, any favours. These reckless, free-handling keepers might be a tiny minority, but they’re the ones making the news and getting the YouTube views.

Should venomous reptile keeping be banned?

Poor keepers with questionable motivation are so often the cause of sensationalist new stories which blight the venomous-keeping community.
So how can we prevent such incidents? And how can we protect the public from irresponsible keepers? Is a ban on keeping these animals the answer?

Torben doesn’t think so. ‘Banning venomous reptiles isn’t a good idea because bans don’t work. In fact, it often makes the problems worse,’ says Torben. ‘Irresponsible keepers will often be more attracted to keep that which is forbidden, and good keepers will simply take their hobby underground where it is impossible to scrutinise and regulate. Every venomous animal then becomes hidden, unregulated, and unaccountable – and that’s not good whichever way you look at it. Animal welfare also suffers under a ban because illegally kept animals can’t be taken to the vet. Keeper safety suffers because they are no longer subject to regulatory guidelines, and public safety suffers too – especially if the keeper knows they cannot be held accountable for their lack of safety standards. A ban simply makes all these problems worse, not better.’

To illustrate the point Tino adds, ‘Local authorities in some areas within Germany have banned venomous reptile ownership, but we know there are many people in these areas who are keeping, breeding and selling venomous species, with no administration or paperwork trail, and ultimately, no accountability. Nobody can know where these animals end up.’

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, the lack of regulation can also cause problems. In the Netherlands there is no legislation to regulate who can keep venomous reptiles nor how they can keep them, and it’s not unusual for inexperienced teenagers to buy venomous animals.

‘Predictably, these unregulated and untrained keepers will often demonstrate poor handling and husbandry protocols and this will create risks, not only for the handler but for members of the public too,’ explains Torben. ‘And while such keepers and incidents are rare, stories like this are invariably sensationalised by the media.

‘It’s frustrating because most keepers are responsible and these stories make us all look bad. They tar all venomous keepers with the same brush. Sensible regulations and guidelines would mandate more responsible practices.’

‘Prohibition simply doesn’t work,’ says Ray. ‘Throughout history, every time a government tries to prohibit people’s pleasures, they fail. And the consequences of that failure are often worse than whatever they were trying to prevent.’

Blue insularis pit viper

Is regulation the answer?

Most experts believe banning venomous reptile keeping is unfair, unnecessary, and unenforceable, but well-structured legislation is recommended as a sensible precaution.

‘We think it’s important that anyone who wants to keep venomous animals should be allowed to do so, provided they are educated and trained to the point where they can demonstrate safety and responsibility. This requires educating keepers with training courses developed and delivered by experienced professional keepers,’ says Torben. ‘Regulation can only work if it is administered and inspected by knowledgeable and competent professionals.’

‘It makes sense for only competent people to be allowed to keep venomous reptiles,’ says Tino. ‘It’s the same logic as allowing only trained people to fly aeroplanes. It’s not only important to protect the person doing it, but also to protect the public.’

Indeed, it is this principle of protecting the public that underlies the Dangerous Wild Animals Act (DWAA) which regulates and licenses the keeping of venomous reptiles in the UK. The primary objective of the DWAA legislation, which was introduced in 1976, is to protect the public.

As Lord Nevill rather bluntly put it in a 2001 UK Government report1, ‘We do not mind wild animals tearing their owner to pieces – that is their owner’s affair – but not the general public.’ It’s a harsh statement which doesn’t quite embrace the nuanced principles behind the DWAA. But it makes an important point quite clearly – people should be allowed to do whatever they want so long as it does not cause harm to others.

Tony is enthusiastic about this approach to legislation. ‘In the UK we are lucky to have a tradition for adopting blacklist legislation, where only activities that are proven to be problematic are banned.’ (As opposed to problematic whitelist legislation where everything is banned unless it has been approved.) ‘I can certainly understand why most people would not want to keep a cobra or a rattlesnake, and that’s fine,’ says Tony. ‘But while I don’t personally understand why some people would risk their life climbing Everest or riding a motorcycle, we shouldn’t stop them doing so if they can demonstrate they are competent and present a manageably small amount of risk to other people. That’s how governments in democratic free countries operate.’

Regulation can only work if it is administered and inspected by knowledgeable and competent professionals

Torben Touwslager

Half a century of success

The UK’s Dangerous Wild Animals Act is apparently unique, as it has been 100% effective. Since it became law in 1976, not a single member of the public has been harmed or killed by an animal regulated by the act.

Husbandry, housing and handling

Ray’s perspective understands the wide range of legislative approaches that can be found across different US states. ‘When you have a free for all with no regulatory legislation, such as there is in Texas and North Carolina, we experience the same problems you find in places where venomous keeping is banned,’ says Ray. ‘You’ll get limited accountability, and there are few incentives to prioritise safety. This is what happens when there is no competence testing in place to regulate who can and cannot keep these animals.’

Florida’s licensing scheme for venomous keepers is a seemingly better approach. ‘It requires the keeper to demonstrate they have high standards relating to the three H’s – husbandry, housing and handling,’ explains Ray. ‘If keepers show they can perform well and deliver those requirements then there’s no reason to deny them the right to keep these animals.’ Of course, Florida’s scheme isn’t perfect. For example, prospective keepers must show that they have completed 1,000 hours of handling competency for each taxonomic family of animals they wish to be licensed for. Not only is it too easy to ‘fudge the numbers’ but such broad-spectrum training can’t equip a new keeper with the skills they need to handle all of the snakes in any given family. ‘Learning how to handle a coral snake might not be of use when that person needs to handle a different snake in the elapid family, such as a mamba or a cobra.’ But Ray enthusiastically agrees that regulations, training, licensing and inspections by competent professionals are essential if you want to make sure everyone stays safe – including the animals.

Southern pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus helleri)
Credit: Responsible with Venomous

The cost of compliance

Adopting legislation not only regulates and encourages responsible keeping, it also discourages irresponsible keepers. However, this is only true if the regulations are sensible. ‘Guidelines and laws should encourage compliance,’ explains Tony. ‘Sadly, many authorities misappropriate regulations in a bid to make venomous keeping inaccessible. But if complying with the regulations is unnecessarily onerous, then venomous keepers go underground.’

Predictably, this could spell disaster. Unregulated keepers are unaccountable to the authorities as they cannot be inspected or licensed, which often means safety protocols are ignored putting public safety at risk. ‘The animal’s welfare could be compromised too,’ says Tino. ‘Licensed keepers with inspected animals must uphold high standards of welfare. Few other animals enjoy the same levels of mandated and inspected care.’

The monetary cost for keepers who want to be compliant with the law is another key factor in the legislation’s success. If the conditions imposed on the prospective keeper are too expensive to implement, or if the costs charged to administer them are unreasonably high, then many will not bother. Sadly, in a naive bid to discourage venomous keeping, many authorities around the world have unwittingly promoted unlawful and irresponsible keeping by setting the bar and the costs unreasonably high.

‘Badly administered laws just become words written on paper if people don’t comply with them,’ says Tony. ‘But governments console themselves by claiming it’s not their fault if people won’t obey the law. But it is their fault, because if they’d created more reasonable regulations then keepers would be more compelled to comply with them.’

Advice for new

venomous keepers

Predictably, there’s a lot to learn if you’re planning on making the leap to keeping venomous reptiles – and it is indeed a leap. ‘It comes with huge responsibilities,’ says Ray. ‘There’s far too much to explain in one magazine article, and it’s not just learning how to handle them safely, although that’s a big part of it. You’ll also need to find a competent and willing veterinarian, and that could be difficult depending on where you live. And creating an environment that keeps you safe and protects the public is also a significant undertaking.’

‘The essential part of your preparation will be to find training to allow you to handle the animals safely,’ says Torben. ‘Only those with experience of handling non-venomous species should consider such training as there is not much room for error. If the person has an understanding of how snakes and lizards behave then they will be far better prepared for the transition to handling something venomous. Even then, finding a trainer who is willing and able to mentor you could also be difficult, but it is essential. Nobody should try to teach themselves.’

‘Finding a good mentor is vital,’ says Ray. ‘Ideally someone who is respected by other accomplished keepers and who displays a calm and drama-free handling style. Terry Phillip from Black Hills Reptile Gardens in South Dakota is almost graceful when he’s working with his animals.’

But what are the best animals for beginners to start with? ‘The best snakes to learn with are somebody elses!’ smiles Ray. ‘Specimens that your mentor already works with is a great place to start. As for the best species, that will likely depend on where you live and the species that are available. Small, low-venom species, such as copperheads are an obvious choice as the consequences of a mistake are likely survivable. It should go without saying that starting with mambas or taipans is a pretty bad idea, but we’ll say it anyway in an attempt to push a blatantly obvious message home.’

Malaysian king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah)
Credit: Responsible with Venomous

The good guys

People will want to keep venomous reptiles, despite unfair laws and regardless of how the practice is perceived by the uninitiated. For some, keeping these animals remains a hobby.

But for others, the endeavour has greater merit. ‘Let’s not forget that the reptile community does a lot of good conservation and herpetology,’ explains Torben. ‘Many venomous species are now bred in captivity while the natural population decreases, and those who take an interest will often pursue careers in herpetology and conservation.

‘Almost all of our knowledge about venomous reptiles can be traced back to these apparently ‘crazy’ people who are told they are foolish for their fascination. But without them we would have a far higher snakebite mortality rate. And we’d have far fewer snakes in the wild because nobody will wish to protect or conserve something that they misunderstand or dislike.’

It seems the world owes a debt of thanks to the responsible people who keep venomous animals. Perhaps we should be encouraging and assisting them instead of disparaging and dissuading them.

Torben Touwslager

Tino Insing

Ray Morgan

Responsible With Venomous provides 1-2-1 training and certification for prospective venomous keepers and handlers. Their focus is offering basic techniques, husbandry care, first aid and bespoke training for the specific species their students aspire to keep.

RWV selects principled students who understand their responsibilities and have sufficient experience to make them capable of passing the course. RWV is keen to highlight that keeping venomous animals is not possible for everybody.

www.responsiblewithvenomous.com