Centenarian snake handler dies

I've been waiting for an opportunity to add this incredible photo of western green mambas by Guido Mocafico to Quigley's Cabinet and I found it in the obituary I read yesterday. Bill Haast (1910-2011), director of the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories, died on Wednesday.

Hast had handled some 3 million poisonous snakes over the years, including rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, copperheads, cobras, and pit vipers. He was bitten at least 173 times by poisonous snakes - the 1st time at age 12 - but built up his immunity by injecting himself daily for more than 60 years with a mix of venoms from 32 snake species.

The Serpentarium drew 50,000 tourists a year for four decades (it closed to the public in 1984). Several times a day, Hast would demonstrate how he milked venom from the snakes. The substance, which can sell for upwards of $5,000 per gram, is essential for making antivenin to treat snakebite victims, like the Florida man bitten by his pet puff adder last week. Hast worked with a Miami doctor to inject thousands of people with the serum and also flew around the world to donate his antibody-rich blood to 21 different snakebite victims.

Here are a few memorable quotes from one of the most recognizable snake-handlers:

• "My slogan, when I first started the serpentarium, was ‘venom production for venom research.’ The attraction was just a vehicle for the research. It was the only way I could make money to support the work. The attraction grew and grew. Being in front of people wasn’t particularly fun for me — I wanted to be in the lab — but it was a chore that had to be done."
• "The initial bite is no worse than a bee sting. But when there’s tissue damage, it feels like your hand is caught in a vise. There have been times I’ve been rolling on the floor."
• “You could have a snake for 30 years and the second you leave his cage door cracked, he’s gone....And they’ll never come to you unless you’re holding a mouse in your teeth.”
• "Aging is hard. Sometimes, you feel useless. But I always felt I would live this long. It was intuitive. I always told people I’d live past 100, and I still feel I will. Is it the venom? I don’t know."
• "I could become a poster boy for the benefits of venom. If I live to be 100, I’ll really make the point."

Haast died of natural causes at his home in southwest Florida. He did live to the ripe old age of 100. Tweeted a North Carolina chemist: “Resssssssst in Peace Bill Haast.”