Who is Bill Haast of Miami Serpentarium and what kind of research has he conducted?

Answer 1

Bill Haast is a guy who became interested in snakes as a child and spend almost his whole life collecting them. he opened his "serpentarium" in rural s. Florida where people could come to see his snakes and for extra admission you could watch him milk a snakes venom. he made a fortune selling snake venom to pharma companies and drove around in a cherry red rolls Royce.

The mythos of Bill Haast is quite different than the actual man. Though widely known as one of the worlds experts on poisonous snakes he never advanced beyond the 6th grade. This isn't to say that he lacks experience as he's proven that time and again.

One myth has to do with the alleged years of "research" on venom. The sad but true fact is that he's never been published, and his findings never made public. The "work" he's done through various universities was nothing more than selling the venom to the school. In defense of his "research" he has conducted, Mr. Haast revealed he was curious about the effects of venoms on small animals though there is no record of his findings.

Bill Haast also practiced mithridatism, the process of desensitation to chemicals by ingesting a small dose and gradually increasing the dose. By doing this he made himself immune to most snake venom which is pretty cool if you ask me. He gave blood transfusion on many occasions to people who had suffered snake bites. Besides having his hands ravaged over the years by certain snake bites that dissolve tissue and nerves he never suffered from disease or illness which he attributes to the snake venom he injected himself with.

Is his good health because of snake venom? I dunno, sounds fishy to me. Can anyone else shed some light on this subject?