Found this article and thought I would share it here.
While I certainly don’t see anything wrong with having 50+ snakes (heck, I’d love to have that many some day!) or keeping venomous snakes responsibly, I also don’t see a problem with a law requiring owners of hots to make their local emergency responders aware that they have them. It doesn’t sound like any restrictions on ownership, it’s just a precaution to try to protect first responders if they ever need to enter the residence, which I get. Only for venomous species, though.
I’m not sure how realistic it is to require venomous owners to keep their own antivenin, though, given the price and scarcity of many antivenins. In a perfect world, venomous keepers would indeed be able to have their own stock of antivenin for every venomous species they keep, but most people have far more access to venomous snakes than their antivenin, unfortunately. Though I have no experience with keeping hots and don’t know anybody who has in the last 20 years, so maybe those who are better-informed will have a more educated opinion on the subject.
1 Like
I think for the most part it’s beneficial. Contacting first responders about hot snakes isn’t a bad thing. But, antivenom is unrealistic for larger collections. Most hot keepers don’t even have antivenom, so I don’t think that requirement is a good thing.
1 Like
Agreed, and where captive collections are currently the best option for wildlife conservation (because governments don’t care and regularly remove habitats for new fuel, towns, roads, war etc) removing a bunch of hot keepers due to this antivenin regulation is out right stupid.
1 Like
Perhaps a way around the antivenin issue would be to have a yearly fee levied on keepers of venomous snakes with the proceeds being used to fund stocks of the required serum at a local hospital or airlift the stuff from farther afield if and when needed.
1 Like
I’m pretty sure that is how it is currently, if you’re bit by a hot snake and need antivenom you have to pay for it anyways. That’s fine by me because if I choose to keep those snakes and take the risk than I’m completely liable if I get bit, anyways, I don’t think $10k is a bad price to keep my life.