|
1-1 of 1 messages
|
Page 1 of 1
|
|
A herper in his element-Glades
|
Reply
|
|
by tigers9 on April 19, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
http://wenatcheeworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080419/NEWS02/603403418/-1/NEWS03
Article published Apr 19, 2008
A herper in his element
By Joel Achenbach
The Washington Post
BUSHNELL, Fla. — Lizards and snakes get plenty of love at Glades Herp Farms.
"I'm a reptile nut — herper — whatever you want to call it," said co-owner RobRoy MacInnes. "I think that reptiles are inherently fascinating and wonderfully beautiful animals."
As a kid he collected snakes in the Everglades as they warmed themselves on the pavement of the road known as the Tamiami Trail. He spent much of his adult life running a retail pet shop in Fort Myers. Eventually he got tired of the looky-loos coming in, turning up their noses and saying "I hate reptiles!"
Now he's in reptile heaven. He and co-owner Robbie Keszey have not only big snakes but also iguanas, geckos, skinks, tarantula spiders, crocodiles, tortoises and so on. A five-acre fenced enclosure is stocked with alligators.
The farm does most of its business by mail order. It's convenient and easy: The animals are sent to customers by UPS or FedEx, though venomous snakes go air freight on Delta (snakes on a plane).
In the rattlesnake shed he opens a plastic tub in which a rattler is in full rattle — "just a snake with a particularly bad attitude." For the spitting cobras he keeps a welder's face shield handy, though sometimes the venom will get on his forehead and, if he sweats, can drip into his eyes, which he says is excruciatingly painful.
In the shed next door he opens a case and takes a peek at a 10-foot python. The creature doesn't slither so much as flow. MacInnes has learned to judge a snake by its eyes — dilated pupils and jittery eyes can signal that something ugly is about to happen. This one, however, remains low-key, lazy, perhaps just colossally bored.
MacInnes, who is exceedingly understated (the people from Animal Planet have told him he's no Steve Irwin), tells the unhappy story of a Tennessee preacher who came to visit. He was from a snake-handling church, and he brought a couple of rattlesnakes that he wanted to barter for a cobra. MacInnes warned that cobras aren't very religious. If you handle a cobra the way you handle a rattlesnake, he told the preacher, you won't last long.
The preacher insisted. He bought the cobra.
"He didn't live a month," MacInnes sai
|
| |
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this topic.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
Check our help page for help using
, or send questions, comments, or suggestions to the
Manager.
|
