Venomous - to keep or not to keep

[BlindOne]

I don't see a problem with keeping hots if you are smart about it. I think FL has a good system in place, you must show 1000 hours of working with the animals and have two keepers vouch for you. That seems reasonable to me.

I started with venomous when I was 20 and kept an amazing variety of stuff until I was ~30. Rattlesnakes, cobras, gabbies, lots of tree vipers (Atheris, Bothriechis, Trimeresurus), copperheads, etc. Never came close to being bitten, and I bred several species. Amazing amazing animals. They really aren't that difficult to work with, just good common sense and the proper tools.

I'm done with them now that I have children, I'd NEVER risk a child's curiosity with venomous. Just a tragedy waiting to happen. After the children are gone though, who knows? My wife, a biologist, isn't opposed to me keeping them.