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STF you wrote:
"free handling is not what I would consider a safe handling technique. "
This is common perception and one I share often, BUT from an animal welfare perspective "free handling" is better than sticks, tongs and other forcible restrictions.
We free handle all snakes, including world's deadlest at our snake shows - always - we don;t carry sticks of any sort! and at Snakebusters we put the snake's welfare first and this is what separates us from other snake handlers in Australia - period!
Also it is a commonly known FACT that a snake that has been free handled often and with care and respect, loses the urge to bite (usually), and this is seen in pet colubrids, pythons and dare I say it, .... venomoids, that are free handled daily.
But lets agree to disagree, you are against snake's welfare and I am for it, and that's OK.
While talking venomoids I can say I have managed to get a heap of venom from a pair of venomoids recently by breeding them and getting a heap of babies, all with venom.
Seven Eastern Brown Snake eggs hatched today, 100 per cent hatch rate and both parents have been venomless for years! Another lot are in the incubator as well!
Another snake handler here in Australia has this week, just been carted to hospital in a chopper after getting chomped by a Brown snake here in Australia (while stick handling in a show) and nearly died and that is not some risk I would give my staff, so we only use venomoid (defintion - no venom - ever!) browns.
ALL THE BEST
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