The crane lifted the 35-foot stucco cobra Saturday. I was the only customer there that early. "We're the only fire-based response team in the world." He closed up the business in 1984, moved to Utah for a few years but returned to Florida in 1990, and settled in a Punta Gorda ranch with Nancy, his third wife, and some 400 snakes that supplied his Miami Serpentarium Laboratories. I recall going with my brother to the airport to pick her up upon her arrival. In 1978, one of my first acts as a new husband on my honeymoon was to bring my new bride to the Serp (30 years later and she hasn't forgotten that one) so she could witness what I'd described so many times. As soon as it was handed back to an embarassed little girl, one of the boys said, "Now you have to look and see if it punched your bus ticket!" Haast retained custody of their son, Bill Jr. and continued to work as a mechanic for Pan Am while he built the Serpentarium. "[7], Haast turned 100 in December 2010[10] and died on June 15, 2011.[1]. He would shove the snake's fangs into the top of a vial and watch the venom trickle down. To this day it is one of our most treasured possesions. BILL PUT ON HIS MILKING SHOW WHEN A SNAKE IN BILL'S HAND WIGGLED AROUND AND SPRAYED A WHITE LIQUID FROM THE REAR OF THE SNAKE INTO THE CROWD AND ACROSS THIS WOMEN'S LEGS IN FRONT OF US. "I could become a poster boy for the benefits of venom," Haast boasted. After leaving Miami for the Air Force and then marriage, my bride and I returned to the Central East Coast of Florida to live, and on a trip to the Keys, I just had to take my new bride to show her Bill Haast's work. I remember him as a very genuine, nice man. I remeber in 1970 when I went to JFK junior high in miami we went on a field trip to the serpentarium I am now 50 years old and never forgot the place.I did make a serious mistake while there that people I tell find hard to believe.there was this hudge round pit with a wall around it, in it was what looked to me like a large stone grey statue of a crcodile well I went in there touched it and one eye opened and I was out of that pit like a rocket.this crocodile was at least 15 feet long it must have been sleeping lucky for me.Bill left a lifetime of memories for a 13 yearold kid the man truely is a legend that has no equal in the reptile world. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Still remember running a service call on a friday night for a NO COOLto be met by a Llama (male) at the entry gate who put his massive head through my truck window and pinned me against my seat..Nancy told me he liked me but to come back because she was delivering a Llama "cria". He agreed to chat only by telephone with a Miami Herald reporter. But the reptile managed to crawl away into a moat in the 50foot square pit, dragging the child with him. I have returned to see his show at thye Serpentarium and have watched him with his wife on the Merv Griffith show & others ( I think also the Jonny Carson Show) many years later. Haast maintained a similar bank in Miami when he ran the Serpentarium theme park, which closed in 1984. ( Because they wouldn't let me move here by myself.) The boy's father and another man, Nicolas Caulineau, jumped into the pit and straddled the crocodile. Today, Van Horn owns Reptile World Serpentarium near St. When he was 19 he joined a man who had a roadside snake exhibit, and went with him to Florida. NEW Police have found evidence a 12-year-old was killed in a crocodile attack in northern Australia. I think its horrible that he killed that animal. Now, he believes, the long-term benefits of the shots have spared him from many of the maladies of old age. It was slithering across the road, which was about 11 feet across and the snakes head and tail were not clearly visible. I remember reading Bill Haast book Cobras in My Garden, one of the most interesting books I have ever read. I live in Sarasota now and totally enjoy the water, I think those times are responceable. THE body of the two-year-old boy, Lane Graves, snatched by an alligator at a Disney resort has . It taught me an important life lessons about fearto just face fears because most of the time our anxiety really isn't worth it. Myles, Justin (Dec 2000/Jan 2001 Issue). We got a motel room across the road from the Serpentarium. This will be of interest to some out there. In the early 1970s, I was carrying out a survey to document the status of certain native reptiles and amphibians of a seven-county area iof siytgh Florida. Thanks for jogging my memory. My father used to deliver popcorn to the Miami Serpentarium in the late 60's early 70's and I used to love to watch Mr. Haast handle the King Cobras. Serpentarium Owner Dies at 100 - NBC 6 South Florida Wow the good old days and funny thing is my name is Cookie!!! The man who mesmerized generations of paying customers from 1947 to 1984 by extracting venom at his Miami Serpentarium as a spine-tingling South Florida attraction is dead. The incident left Bill Haast badly shaken. The boy's father and uncle jumped into the ?it and tried to pry open the crocodile's mouth. It was July, 1972, and my family was making our first visit to the Serpentarium. When he had enough, he opened the Serpentarium in Miami in 1946. That was South Dade, Florida, relatively free of the most venomous snakes because Bill Hass and the Serpentarium. Apparently the damaged tail had to be amputated afterwards. I introduced myself and got my wife and kids to meet him too. I'm 5'2 from s city in north Jersey myself, and the snake was about my size! After his wife became pregnant, Haast lost his job when the speakeasy he was working at was raided by IRS agents. All times AEDT (GMT +11). other sizes: small original auto previous | next Unless otherwise noted under the right bottom of the photo, all images are copyrighted by Don Boyd comment | share Soon after opening the Serpentarium, Haast began experimenting with building up an acquired immunity to the venom of King, Indian and Cape cobras by injecting himself with gradually increasing quantities of venom he had extracted from his snakes, a practice called mithridatism. a woman in Florida died after she fell into a pond and was attacked by two alligators, the remains of a 14-year-old boy were cut from a crocodile's stomach, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. I rememer Bill Jr. when we rode motorcycles in scramble races out in North Dade. He said his last snakebite, Number 173 suffered in 2003 -- courtesy of a Malaysian pit viper -- was the final blow to his hands, already mangled from years of enduring the nerve- and tissue-destroying poison that snakes spew when biting. The resorts beach pool is next to the lake and overlooks the Seven Seas Lagoon. ''I can no longer open my hands wide or make a fist,'' Haast explained. But the FDA shut it down and banned the drug, saying PROven had not been properly tested for humans. There's a picture of me and an indigo snake, probably nearly as long as I was tall. Not to mention, people do not operate properly during tragic events. A 6-year-old boy fell into a crocodile pit and was killed. The seller's address: Eureka, Fla. Haast knew he had to head south, to a warmer climate favored by snakes. Cloud, Florida and it just so happens that my dad lives there now. Eventually, his collection became one of the most diverse venomous snakes on the planet. Haast and his teenage son, Bill Jr., began constructing snake pits, the beginning of the Serpentarium. I grew up near the Serpentarium , and played baseball @ Suniland Park..Many times during games , an iguana that had escaped from the serpentarium , would run across the field..As kids , we too ,sold snakes to the facility , and we managed to see the show several times a yearwe would ride our bikes to Parrot Jungle and the Serpentarium and see all kinds of rare wild animals and snakes , and birds , then fish salt or fresh water within a few miles of homegreat place to grow up in the 60's. Julio. Regarding Bill Haast's killing of Cookie the crocodile, bothe Bill Guest and jesse are wrong. I believe he gave them some of his blood with the anti-bodies and that saved their lives. ''I know a lot of people in Miami still remember the Serpentarium and wonder what became of me, that's why I'm talking to you,'' said Haast, who would only be interviewed by telephone. Luckily though, I see from visiting one of the links that there is an attraction to view snake milking in St. Hanley "Doc" Harding, Aurora Protection Specialists. The Depression killed the snake attraction, so Haast went to work for a bootlegger based in the Florida Everglades, until revenue agents busted their still. I liked that his shows were practical and informative with very little hype, but fascinating nonetheless. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. How lucky were we that we had this place? great childhood memories spent there with my family , i remember getting goose bumps when we would see the cobra statue. The boy was dragged into the water by an alligator at 9pm Tuesday, local time, while wading in about a foot of water during a movie night at Disneys Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. I don't know. I can still recall watching a 12 or 14 ft gator, said to have been the largest but for its missing tail. AN eight-year-old boy has been mauled to death by a crocodile just metres from his family home in Malaysia. I . A crocodile takes rest by the water at the Yala National Park in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on August 21, 2022. The Serpentarium's landmark 35-foot-high, hooded, concrete-and-stucco cobra stuck out its forked tongue at motorists and arriving patrons on South Dixie Highway and Southwest 126th Street. When you left his exhibit, you loved the snakes, and I hasve never been afraid of them for the rest of my life. Small world. He was carrying a snake-bite kit, and had a friend inject him with antivenom; the bite hospitalized him for a week. One day I noticed his handshis fingersthey were deformend, mangled, sort of like a something from an old horror moviea result--one of many, of having been bitten by so many venomous snakesI think his own blood was an anti-venom, as a result of being bitten so much, I think he used to distribute this "antivenom (his blood)worldwide to snakebite vicims. Voted for the photo and the biographical info. Crocodile That Killed Boy Is Shot to Death - The New York Times Is bitten by dozens of water moccasins and dies. The snake had disappeared, but I estimate that the snake, which had at least a one foot girth, was 14 feet or more. 2010s. (and I have literally been attacked by a shark, which resulted in 30 days in the hospital, and losing half a lung) My point? My oldest brother had met a girl who, I believe, had worked at the Miami Serpentarium. An eight-year-old boy was mauled to death by a crocodile just metres from his family home in Malaysia. I gave Dr. Hasst an iguana that got too large for me to keep and from then on he let me come in for free..
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