“Snakeman” Raymond Hoser allowed a taipan and a death adder to bite his daughter while an audience at a shopping centre looked on.
The 49-year-old handler claimed the video demonstrated that, despite his conviction for violating his Commercial Wildlife Demonstrator Licence, there was never any danger involved.
Last week, he was fined $12,000 in County Court for showing venomous snakes less than three metres away from the public, using accessible pits, and for demonstrating in a manner that exposed the animals to a risk of theft in 2008 and 2009.
He asserted that the video from July, which left his daughter with bleeding puncture wounds on her forearm, confirmed his snakes were not venomous.
“She just bled a bit, and if they’d been venomous, she would have died in two minutes,” Hoser stated.
“My ability to do that with her indicates that I have never handled a venomous snake.”
Hoser, from Park Orchards, serves as the director of Snakebusters, a reptile education company.
Joe Tucci, chief executive of the Australian Childhood Foundation, remarked that children should never undergo such an ordeal to make a point.
by Vandas Voice
