On Facebook, there is a page with some 49,000 subscribers called Venomous Snakes Classifieds. Despite the background photo of a woman in a bikini eating a slice of watermelon, the conversation largely sticks to the topic at hand, thanks to the tireless posting of its administrator, a South Carolina snake collector named Jeff Leibowitz.
On the evening of September 5, Leibowitz posted a video with one of his prize species — an inland taipan from the desert of Australia, widely considered to be one of the most venomous snakes in the world. “There’s no need to be so scared of them if you just know their limitations,” he said, holding the snake between his thumb and forefinger. This is called “free-handling” — the controversial practice of holding and manipulating the reptiles with your bare hands without tongs for protection. Leibowitz explained that the snake could not bite him because he was holding it high enough on its body that it could not turn around and bite him. “See how he’s trying to get me,” he said.
Lots of snake folks consider Leibowitz to be an unnecessary risk-taker for his views about handling deadly venomous snakes, about which he is frank: “Antivenom is for pussies,” is how he put it recently.
Later that night, Leibowitz posted again to Venomous Snakes Classifieds. “Who has a meeting access to anti-venom for an inland taipen,” he........