The King Cobra Sanctuary

The King Cobra Sanctuary
30-05-2011

King Cobra handling demo

30-05-2011

Garr, you beat me to posting pics of this fantastic place

30-05-2011

Thanks for that!!!

01-06-2011

I'll have my photos soon, so Zoogiraffe beat me by about 2 weeks.

01-06-2011

I'm far away from being an expert about demonstrations with venemous snakes like this but... it looks to me as if this kind of handling is a bit to much "easy going" (short distance of the man behind the King Kobra f.e.)
Anyway: What exactly are the keepers on the picture doing?

01-06-2011

Checked their website already - I guess they know what they are doing (according to their long time experience with this species). It just looked a little dangerous to me.

Also, I think they deserve a big applause for their goals.

01-06-2011

Well said.

01-06-2011

All the staff at the Sanctuary,are very experienced at what they do and don't take any risks,more importantly they know each individual snake,and know what they can get away with each of them,also most of the Cobras are trained to responed to handle signals,so they handlers can tell the Cobra what they want it to do!!!

24-01-2013

What a ridiculous statement! Any free handling of a venomous snake is a risk. If the staff did not take any risks they would use protective contact and properly restrain the snakes in clear tubes. I agree the room is too small and the keepers have no room to get away if the cobra were to persue them for a bite, as they are known to do, even following prey into trees!

24-01-2013

Before this debate goes any further, you should be aware that a short time after this photo was taken, Luke Yeomans, who founded the sanctuary, was bitten by one of the snakes in his care, had a heart attack and died.

25-01-2013

I was not at all surprised that the gentleman was killed by a snake. I would never say he deserved it but he was wreckless and at times the snakes were out of his control. They had videos on YouTube showing them deliberately antagonising the animals something I find utterly detestable. The videos were removed within hours of the incident.
The only reason for handling the animals in such a fashion is to provide a spectacle for the misguided visitors. While working in the US I asked if I could gain experience with handling 'hots' and my mentor had the utmost respect for the animals.I was taught a
variety of handling methods to minimise stress and ensure I always had control over the animal.
It's unfortunate he died but far more unfortunate that their handling methods led to an event which would have only reinforced the negative public perception of these animals.

The video below doesn't even come close to some of the reckless acts depicted in the (now removed) promotional videos for the 'sanctuary'
Http://youtu.be/Bd4DQ8q-nVc

25-01-2013

I am sorry to hear he died and would never speak ill of the dead. Just generally though I can never understand antagonising reptiles. A lot of venomous keepers and keepers of crocs use their defence mechanisms as a form of entertainment. I can think of a few big zoos with these kinds of shows! I think it is the equivalent of a keeper coming along with a metal bar and rattling the cages of the big cats to make them attack. It is not acceptable with mammals so why should it be with reptiles?

26-01-2013

Most of the Cobra's were trained to respond to hand signals,which include signals for them to hood,and go flat to the ground some of them even knew a hand signal to return to their viv,but then the promotional video for the place was never going to show you something as dull and boring as that,as it would never bring people in to the place.Just for the record after Romy Whitaker(Think I've spelt that right),nobody has done more research in under standing King Cobra behaviour,than Luke did also nobody has bred as many King Cobras as Luke did,sdo on those grounds alone I think he deserves alittle bit of respect,considering he is nolonger with us to defend how he did things!!!

26-01-2013

What is the take home message from the tragic death of this cobra's owner? It seems to me that if even the world's expert got killed handling the cobras like this that probably nobody should be doing this.

I don't think anybody in a traditional zoo setting would be working with cobras like this. Perhaps some valid science could come from such handling, but mostly it seems like unnecessarily risky showing-off that puts both the snake and its handlers in a bad situation for no good reason.

26-01-2013

Cobras trained to respond to hand gestures? Goodness, he did have you drinking the kool aid!
Were the cobras also trained to receive kisses as the videos and photograps suggest?
Where was his research published? I've never seen it!
I'd wager he told you they had bred more king cobras than anyone else too? Isn't it totally implausible given that Memphis, Riverbanks and GPZ have been consistently breeding them since the very early 90's? Indeed these institutions established the husbandry paramaters for the species!
I find it very difficult to believe Romulus Whitaker would be anything other than utterly flabbergasted by the way they treated these animals.
Suggestions they planned to breed 'golden mutation' kings speak volumes about his 'conservation work'.

As perviously stated it's unfortunate he died but he didn't respect the animals and it was sadly inevitable one of these guy would take a bite.