Four Daredevil Snake Handlers, Apart From Steve Irwin, You Need To Know

Following one You Tube suggested video after another, I ended up watching the baddest ass web series that was never made.

DISCLAIMER: Following visuals are disturbing. Discretion advised.

1. Steve Ludwin

Meet Steve Ludwin, compared to guys on the list he almost seems like a chicken and this is the guy who figured out anti-aging effects of snake venom by injecting himself with it. He says he wasn’t bitten once but had amusing incidents like injecting himself with venom of three different snakes and explaining it to doctors, under the influence of venom. He did it accidentally because he was sleepy, it wasn’t the venom that would’ve killed him, it would’ve been Boredom.

They tested this therapy on the mice, unfortunately all of them got eaten

The idea behind snake venom making you look younger is it prevents you from the ravages of age by giving you a stronger immune system. And that was the focus of the guy next on the list.

2. Tom Friede

Before I introduce Tom Friede, let me introduce Black Mamba. Here’s Steve Irwin, saying he’s scared of Black Mamba.

Steve Irwin doing what he did best

Here’s Black Mamba, being scared of Tom Friede coz biting him does nothing. And then he gets himself bitten by another snake featured on Steve Irwin’s World’s Deadliest Snakes — Taipan.

Black Mamba trying hard to fit into stereotype of Angry Black Male

Obsession is just passion minus divorce. In spite of being of immense value to study of Immunology, Tom doesn’t have a degree, but does have a divorce, so he’ll be labelled as obsessed. I guess, that just shows how important education is. The next guy has just that, a family and an education, so much so that he imparted some of it to the goddamn Steve Irwin.

3. Jamie Seymour

Jamie Seymour is a Toxinologist. He studies everything venomous. Now all the men in this list just are — they’ve never shared the story of their doubts about their choices. In the video below, Jamie shares the story of his doubts about the field. How he too thought Steve Irwin is a moron and Steve Irwin death affected him and influenced his future work.

If a man handling most venomous creatures can cry, there should be no problem with other men crying.

You know how a teacher is cool if he starts weaving in pop culture references in the subject (Example: A Skeleton saying ‘Label me like one of your french girls’.) Jamie Seymour uses the plot device of cliffhangers to teach about science, or at least used to until… (to be continued… or not. Who knows?)

Say Aaaah!! Forget I said that

4. Bill Haast

Do not Google this guy’s name. Just watch his crazy biography unfold before your eyes. Here’s the first video of him, just after becoming the first man on record to survive a King Cobra bite.

People say first million is the toughest, this guy says first King Cobra bite is

He was already forty year old veteran in Snake Handling when this video was taken, already of retirement age. But he continued and got himself another King Cobra bite, one even on TV!!

After King Cobra bit him he said, “Bite Me!”

Now, Bill worked as a snake handler and farmed snake venom in front of spectators for money. That might make you think he was a bad ass for the sake of being a bad ass, but he wasn’t. His work proved instrumental in finding vaccines for the motor neuron disease aka Polio.

Yeah, use snake venom on that paralyzed child for Science (and fun)

If you thought whoa!! He’s the bravest person of all in the list. I’m not even half way through. People leave orphans at other people’s door, Bill Haast had people leave 7 feet crocodile at his door. It behaved like a dog with Bill, routinely escaped its enclosure and all Bill had to do was show up; it would silently go back to its place.

Cookie the Croc routinely escaped her enclosure at the Miami Serpentarium, says biologist Joe Wasilewski, who once worked there. PIC COURTESY: Joe Wasilewski

However, it didn’t last for long. Some dogs have to be put down, Cookie too had to be put down b’coz it ended up killing a child. Bill was so disturbed by this, he closed his Snake and Crocodile exhibit and moved to a different city. Where he continued handling and milking snakes, survived another King Cobra bite and lived happily ever after until the age of 101.

Guinness World Records Preview for most snake bites survived