“Snakeman” Raymond Hoser allowed a taipan and a death adder to bite his daughter while a shopping centre audience watched on.
The handler, 49, said the video proved that despite being convicted of breaching his Commercial Wildlife Demonstrator Licence, there was never any risk.
He was fined $12,000 in the County Court last week for demonstrating with venomous snakes less than three metres from the public, working in accessible pits and demonstrating in a way that put the animals at risk of theft in 2008 and 2009.
He said the July video demonstration, which left his daughter with bleeding puncture wounds in her forearm, had proved his snakes were not venomous.
“She was only bleeding and if they’d been venomous she’d have been dead in two minutes,” Hoser said.
“If I’m confident to do that to her, it shows you I have never used a snake with venom.”
Hoser, of Park Orchards, is the director of reptile education company Snakebusters.
Australian Childhood Foundation chief executive Joe Tucci said children should never be put through an ordeal to prove a point.
by Vandas Voice
