The Man Who Milks Snakes for a Living

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I would flip through the go out and try to find all the animals that were in region that were in there and it just started a lifelong passion for these animals in those field guides as a child. There were pictures of a type of snake called coral snake that absolutely fascinated me and I always said one day and get to work with them in about 2011 I started keeping coral snakes and I was keeping a type of coral snake that was incredibly rare. I was the only one keeping them in the United States at the time and a scientist from Australia had seen that on Facebook and said can you provide me some samples of it was really learning under fire, which I would never recommend to anyone a gentleman who had been producing venom since the 60s, took me under his wing and worked with me on safety and what I needed to do to be able to do that and we did lead to a very successful scientific publication. Then the question was, what else can you provide me so it turned into providing venom from 100 different species one time and grew very quickly and that led into providing venom to pharmaceutical companies and that's now our main source of revenue, providing veterans for Asia, Middle East, South America, and all of Africa.

The process is really quite simple and it's been done the same way for a very long time you take a sterile vessel you put a membrane over the top that the animal can bite into and from there the grab and restrain the animal. Now a snake is at its most desperate situation when you're grabbing typically their first instinct is to flee, one of their last instances to use their venom so we try to be gentle and some of them are intelligent enough to know the process is happening so a lot of them know what to expect and we try to condition them by.

They give their venom they get fed right after. So it's almost like a reward so they bite naturally into the vessel and release their venom and from there it goes into a purification process and then it's turned into a freeze-dried powder and that's how the scientists around the world and the pharmaceutical companies use it in toxins in 2011 and its beginning years. It was very small on the snow in the community even knew was there in 2016 and toxins became a high production facility and gain a lot more attention. It's become an enormous success with the community treated with utmost level of respect by the city and by its residents. We have a very serious level of preparedness here with the fire department with the police department. The local hospitals know us are states poison control knows us because if you can imagine Wisconsin poison control getting a call that someone's been bitten by a black mamba or a king cobra.

The first thing to do is roll your eyes and assume it's not anything like that so one day I was extracting from several black mamas and I rest a finger on their nose. So I had that animal in my hand and pressing on its nose and I lifted the animal before I lifted my finger and I actually lacerated my finger with the snake's friend so any time that you believe you've been snake bitten, you know, the first rule is get to the hospital as quickly as possible and of course we have the evening on hand but basically I waited to see because that animal had just released its venom. Did I get any venom in my system and my okay and I started to lose control of my tongue and my eyelids and eyes were drinking. I was salivating and so then we got to the hospital I received four vials of antivenom and went home that evening and had dinner with my family. That wasn't the first accident had with it's a little ironic and and actually kind of funny despite the severity of it. But in 2015 I was extracting venom from a snake from Africa called the stiletto snake and we were doing these extractions to do a scientific paper that proved that there is no answer evening that can be used to treat that bite and I had my right hand placed in the wrong place at the wrong time and I actually accidentally pushed my finger on to explain and we had to take what's called the flight for life are emergency helicopter down to a huge hospital in the southern part of the state, and of course we knew there was nothing that could treat it so it was all pain management for 48 hours and I see but it still makes me laugh. The irony that we knew we couldn't be treated there. We are with an independent nation.

We have a very strict thing that we actually another venom producer used that we adopted, which is that I'm safe pilots checklist so we go through that checklist, but before I walk in that room. I like to remind myself that we don't want it to happen again which it will eventually be another bite.

It's just the nature of the business, but to prevent that to keep my family from having to go through with me. This hurts a lot of people's feelings. But snakes don't have a part of the brain that shows emotion or connection. Lizards do they become bonded to their keepers and things like that snakes can't do that.

It's all about.

How tolerant is that animal be now there's a lot of YouTube stars right now.

People that want to be like Steve Irwin and educate, but they'll take these deadly animals and they'll handle them in a very reckless way. Naturally it's it's not a matter of if but when they're going to get bitten and it's going to be ugly.

One of them on extremely close friends with and he has a young daughter and every time he would post a video doing something stupid with a dangerous animal.

I'd send him a picture of his daughter because just because you have antivenom. It doesn't mean you're out of the woods.

There can be lots of secondary infection. You know you could be bitten by one of these snakes and it turns out you had a pre-existing condition. You never knew about and the next thing you know you're on dialysis or your dad it's it's not worth it, but the general public loves it because they believe they're seeing a bond between an animal in a person and that's it's not scientifically possible. When you asked what you do for a living. In your answer is extracting venom from deadly animals. You get a variety of reactions. A big one is are you serious squad and why in the heck would you want to do that job. People are really interested in the back story Daniel allows visitors to come and see for themselves were not like any other zoo. I feel that in our educational center that that sparks a whole different level of interest and investment from the kids that are watching us from behind the glass and stuff.

It's just pure because these kids are nose to nose with cobras and was rattlesnakes. What we want to see are more people working in conservation more people studying venom to find more legitimate medicinal uses. That's kind of our goal just in Africa alone. There's hundreds of thousands of bytes a year. A large number of antivenom for Africa is donated and I've been fortunate enough to see our antivenom save people's lives over there. It's a humbling experience to be a part of and something that were were very proud of. It's what keeps us going every day. I think if six-year-old me knew that this was the path that I was going to end up on.

I don't think I would've believed myself we just try to approach it with a great deal of humility and always remember, the goal is to save people's lives not to fill our egos or anything like that.

It's just all about saving lives in a great job on that piece by Madison and a special thanks to Nathaniel Frank, CEO of M toxins venom lab we were six years old. He told us he was obsessed with reptiles. He knew then that history will be working with these animals. We learned also snakes don't like being grabbed and also snakes don't have a motion but I love the incentives that venom for food program and how we ultimately train these snakes basically do some good in the end that's what it's all about saving lives.

If you live near snakes appearance in a country antivenom is in every hospital and it literally saves lives the story of Nathaniel Frank, CEO of M toxins venom lab you on our American store. Everything is more expensive these days with inflation, rising Medicare beneficiaries living on a fixed income are concerned about increasing costs make your Medicare dollars go further by picking the right plan. Start by looking for a plan that gives you more.

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