09/09/2024
“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore as wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves.” - Matthew 10:16
I’m going to be honest here. I’ve always been a little stumped by the middle of that verse. Given my lifelong interest in herpetological matters, I’ve always been curious as to how wise can a snake really be?
I’m no Biblical scholar, but I might have it figured out. It took a scientific study from a couple of years ago that determined that, despite the absence of external ear openings, snakes do indeed hear sounds. That’s when it came together for me.
You see, a snake’s eyes are always open. They lack eyelids, so even if they’re resting, they are still capable of sight. As mentioned before, they don’t have ears per se, but pick up sounds through the bones in their head. They are sensitive to vibrations in the air and on the ground. The snake’s tongue is used to smell. As the tongue waves around periodically, it picks up odor particles. When the tongue comes back into the mouth, it is brushed or inserted into an organ on the roof of the snake’s mouth - the Jacobson’s organ - where the particles are analyzed. Since the snake’s tongue is bifurcated, or forked, the snake is capable of determining which direction the smell is coming from. Additionally, some snakes (pit vipers and most pythons) possess highly sensitive heat-seeking pits on the face that are used to detect warm-blooded prey.
The point is, a snake is always acutely aware of what’s going on around it.
So should we be. As Paul said in Ephesians, “walk circumspectly,” which I take to mean to walk with intent, knowing your surroundings, making good decisions, and not blindly following the latest fad or popular person.
There’s quite a difference between knowledge and wisdom. It’s one thing to know something. It’s quite another to apply that knowledge in a proper way.
I remember as an adolescent thinking that when I grew up, I’d like to have a collection of live venomous snakes. To this day, they still fascinate me. But I don’t keep any, except for the occasional copperhead that I lock up until I can relocate it in a day or so. I have a better understanding of the effects of venoms and a better sense of my own mortality these days. I don’t want the added liability, risk, and responsibility it takes to properly house and maintain a venomous snake collection. I don’t have a problem with those who do keep venomous snakes, so long as said snakes are responsibly and properly kept and cared for.
Personally, I believe it would be unwise for me to keep venomous snakes. I don’t need one to make a Critter Keeper show exciting. I have a couple of fake ones for that. Heaven knows I have enough other unwise things I’ve said and done over the years.
Allow me to segue into a current event: The Inland Taipan is widely regarded as the most highly toxic venomous land snake in the world. It’s an Australian elapid, and the main reason there are no recorded human deaths from the bite of this snake is that there is little human activity in its remote geographical range of central Australia. Most Australians who encounter them are wise enough to leave them alone. Modern advances in medical care and prompt administration of antivenin are the only reasons why the bite of an Inland taipan today might be considered “survivable.”
I once had a dream that I was bitten by a Coastal taipan. In the dream, for some inexplicable reason, my wife was asleep in a snake pit, and I went into the pit to rescue her. As I slid my hand under her back to carry her out, I felt something grab my hand.
This dream was two or three decades ago, but I remember the images like it was last night. It was so vivid. A huge taipan - its head was several inches wide (in real life, the Coastal taipan can reach lengths of around 11 feet; Inlands are smaller, reaching an average of about 6 feet) - had latched onto my left hand. The snake was chewing, and I watched as the long rigid fangs and other teeth repeatedly penetrated the back of my hand. I could see the amber venom mingling with the copious amounts of blood from the veins there, and the eyes of the taipan seemed full of malevolence and spite. I could feel the effects of the venom immediately as it entered my bloodstream of my hand. It was tingling, uncomfortable, and then paralyzed. In my dream, I said, “That’s it, I’m dead. But I died saving my wife.”
I love a vivid dream like that. It’s like a free movie. I awoke instantly at that point to a tingling left hand that had fallen asleep under my body.
But I digress. The point is, the Inland taipan (or any taipan, for that matter) is one snake you don’t want to be bitten by. Unless, of course, you are suicidal. Wikipedia states that a single bite from this snake possesses “enough lethality to kill more than an estimated 100 grown human beings.”
Knowing the toxicity of this snake, an unwise person might decide to acquire a young Inland taipan, house it in a plastic container in his apartment complex, and video himself handling the snake in an unsafe manner, without even having protocols or antivenin in place in the event of a bite.
If you’re familiar with what happened late last week in Florence, South Carolina, please know that I am not piling on. I don’t know the man, I’ve only heard of him, and I’m been compelled to pinch the bridge of my nose the couple of times I’ve watched his videos.
If you’re not familiar with what happened, I’ll try to give you the Cliff’s Notes version, with a minimum of editorializing.
This fellow likes to post videos of himself freehandling dangerously venomous snakes, including cobras, rattlesnakes, Gaboon vipers, and even a death adder. Then he went and got himself a young Inland taipan. In his most recent videos, he’s been demonstrating his unproven theory that you can “control” an Australian elapid by “applying pressure” to the snake’s body about six inches behind the head.
I hold the view that such actions are foolish, which is a synonym for “unwise.”
Late last week, that little taipan was using all of its senses to become acutely aware of what was going on around it, and had apparently had enough disrespect, and decided to disprove this theory.
For total context, I should add that this individual, judging by his posts on social media, is unpleasant, vulgar, and denigrative. There’s a considerable ego involved, and he tends to be insulting toward folks who disagree with his practice or even caution him. He has alienated much of the reptile community by questioning the masculinity of venomous keepers who don’t freehandle, and by recently posting that “Antivenin is for (expletive deleted).”
As it happened, his apparent one safety protocol minutes after getting tagged by the taipan, was a plea on Facebook asking for Inland taipan antivenin. So now, with possible imminent death at the door, he has opened himself up to mockery, “told-you-so’s” and some unsavory comments hoping for his death.
As of this writing, he is still alive. Antivenin was procured, but it took ten hours for it to arrive and be administered. That means for almost half a day, Inland taipan venom rocked his body, dilating major blood vessels resulting in low blood pressure, possible cerebral bleeding due to the venom’s impact on clotting, potential organ failure including the heart and kidneys, and a whole host of other symptoms that convince me that a taipan bite wouldn’t be a great choice for a suicidal person at all. Antivenin is not going to reverse all of those symptoms. What gets damaged stays damaged. This fellow has a hard road of recovery ahead of him if he survives.
What of the snake? It was recovered and confiscated by (I’m assuming) DNR, along with 13 other venomous snakes and a domestic cat. It’s reported that all the animals, except the cat (again, I’m assuming) were euthanized.
I know state legislators are going to be on this like ugly on an ape, and responsible keepers will end up paying the price.
I’m also troubled by the vitriolic comments extended by some of the folks on the threads, as while some are sorry it happened and offer their prayers, others are hoping for his death and saying he got what he deserved. These must be hard for his family to read when they post the occasional update.
I hope and pray he survives, and beyond that, I pray he has a literal “come to Jesus moment” if he gets that opportunity. He will need all the grace, mercy, and humility to withstand the crushing criticism of a community who has been impacted by his unwise choices. Some of the community appear to be quite unforgiving.
Life lessons are all over the place with this one, aren’t they?
Your words and actions don’t just affect you.
Freehandling dangerously venomous snakes is unwise.
Be kind.
Seek wisdom.
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. - Isaiah 55:4
