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Venomoids - A Practitioner's View
Reproduced with permission of Raymond Hoser
Part 3
For the first time ever, large numbers of valuable snakes could be made venomoid without fear of mishap.
The snakes were used for public displays for some time before Raymond Hoser announced that all had been surgically fixed via a paper in the UK journal Herptile.
Countless other reptile people and members of the public had by that stage seen these snakes and been unaware that they had been surgically fixed. Put simply, the operation was not detectable.
The revelation that deadly snakes could now be safely made harmless in a now simple and routine procedure came as a bombshell in the reptile world.
Internet forums and lists were flooded with discussions in terms of this brave new world of venomoid snakes. Many correspondents maintained disbelief that the venomoid procedure on snakes could have been modified to become risk free for the snakes.
While the initial aim of the operation was to make deadly snakes used in public displays harmless (for safety reasons), the operation has had numerous other positive spin offs.
For the captive snakes themselves the operation to remove the venom glands has had unexpected benefits. Normally deadly snakes are handled forcibly with pinning sticks and grabbed tightly behind the head. This is because a bite can be fatal and any other handling method leaves that risk open.
Surgically rendered harmless snakes don't need to be handled this way, instead being able to handled like harmless pythons. This kind of handling, (mid body and supporting the snake and not restraining the head and neck) is pleasant to the snake and results in far less ongoing stress and cruelty to the snake in terms of it's handling and rapidly manifests as a less stressed and more healthy snake.
Unstressed snakes feed more reliably in captivity, breed more readily and so on.
Contrary to reports that snakes need venom for digestion (including in many books), this isn't so. Venom's only real use is to kill food. As captive snakes are fed only already dead food, the non-venomous state of these "venomoid" snakes is a non-issue. The venom glands are otherwise a non-essential organ and their removal has no impact on the snake's ongoing welfare.
The Sensation Caused by the new venomoid snakes.
In terms negatives of the operation or negatives to the snakes there were none.
Notwithstanding this, Raymond Hoser's ever reliable critics soon came out of the woodwork with a litany of alleged woes and crimes committed by Raymond Hoser. These were in the main persons adversely named in the Smuggled books and/or their close friends.
One claim was that the new Hoser procedure was cruel as no chemical anaesthetic was applied to the snakes. Coupled with this was a similar claim that cooling the snakes was also cruel.
Noting that snakes in the wild state cool to five degrees or less on a daily basis in winter months in cooler regions, the cruelty in cooling claim started to look odd.
Furthermore it is common knowledge that reptiles that are cool have reduced or no sensations of pain. This fact is well-known and documented in all major texts and commonly manifests that reptile keepers must place wire cages around heaters and lights in snake cages as the snakes will when cold simply move up to the heat source and give themselves life-ending burns as they try to warm up their cold bodies.
Put simply, cold snakes don't feel pain, even when the pain indicates something life-threatening.
The herpetological literature is riddled with cases of pythons and other snakes that have killed themselves by sitting on light bulbs when cold.
Furthermore, snakes are pre-adapted in terms of getting internal mouth injuries, such as from a struggling mouse that is alive for three or more seconds after being bitten and held in a snake's mouth. Hence post operative pain in terms of soft tissue injury is automatically less than such that may occur from a routine feeding on a live rodent.
David Williams (a convicted and self-confessed criminal and wildlife smuggler adversely named in Smuggled (1993) and Smuggled-2 (1996)), true to form SPAMMED the internet with numerous false claims and generically condemning the venomoid procedure. However the irony of this was that a year earlier, he'd himself botched an attempt at venomoid surgery on a Taipan, in a failed operation in which he attempted to remove a single venom gland.
The final proof of the success of the new Hoser venomoid procedure was that within two months of details of the operation being published, (Australia's first ever successful venomoid operations) Hoser had been invited to give lectures at several scientific societies, had already fulfilled more than 20 requests to show the said snakes at public meetings and received more than 100 other requests to do the operations on other people's snakes, including at some of Australia's best known zoos.
Hoser declined all requests to operate on other people's snakes on the basis of liability issues (as in what happens if a person confuses a "fixed" with a "non-fixed" snake, which is easy), and so on, although by publishing the details of the operation, others minded to do such operations are now in a position to use a foolproof template.
Hoser has no short term plans to do further operations as all snakes needed for public displays have now been "fixed". These include, Black, Brown, Tiger, Copperhead and Death Adder.
Outside Australia and as a result of the fact that the Hoser method now makes venomoid operations safe and effectively painless for snakes, the demand for these operations has skyrocketed.
Non-reptile people are likely to see this demand manifest in an increasing usage of deadly snakes in TV shows and movies as actors take advantage of risk-free handling of snakes that in the "real world" are very deadly.
Surgical Removal of Venom Glands in Australian Elapid Snakes - The creation of venomoids.
In my own case, I have been keeping and handling deadly Australian snakes for some decades and never had a call to remove the venom glands from snakes.
The push to remove venom glands came from several angles and arose due to my seeking a permit to publicly display, show and handle deadly species of snake and minimize the inherent risks, both real and perceived. Noting the increase in public liability insurance problems and related occupational health and safety laws, particularly in the wake of insurance disasters in Australia such as the Longford Gas Explosion, HIH Insurance Company bust up and so on the idea of using deadly snakes for displays in close quarters became problematic.
In the period 2002-2004 I received inquiries from numerous people who wanted a live and interactive display of deadly snakes, but without the associated risks. Included here were the managers of the Heritage Golf Club at Chirnside Park (Victoria), Diamond Creek Public School at Diamond Creek, The Bayside Christian College at Baxter and others.