Kids reptile shows.

If you want to know how often do I, Australia's best known reptile handler get asked, what did you do over the last month, the answer is regularly?
In fact I get asked this a lot as I travel the country doing countless live reptile shows!
Now if I told you I was entertaining and educating adults and children when doing Australia's best reptile parties, you would probably reply with something like, well that is expected.
However if I said I was extracting semen from a live snake then you may be surprised.
However this exact action is a part of my job description.
Here at reptile parties, we play with snakes daily. That’s the scaly kind of course.
Not only by handling them, feeding them and cleaning their cages on a daily basis. Or by doing the worlds leading wildlife conservation and research work with them as well.
About ten years back, or 2004 to be exact, I dropped a major bombshell on the world herpetological community with the worlds first ever cases of successful breeding via artificial insemination in a whole swag of species of snakes and lizards. Yes I published a big scientific paper about it. That paper has been publishewd and republished widely and the techniques since used by many others.
Now it happens most of what I bred was pretty common species, but the methods can and have since been used to breed the rarest and most endangered species of reptiles on the planet.
It was suggested that the Australian government give me a knighthood or Australia-day honour or something similar for it, but then it was pointed out that here in Australia only child molesting monsters and the like get such honours in this country.
Anyway, what is by far more important is the long-term conservation and welfare of snakes and other reptiles and wildlife and that is why e do what we do, and even when the snakes do not want to have sex!
Long after I am dead and buried, hopefully the legacy of my work and that of my fantastic team of workers will continue in the form of enlightened attitudes to reptiles and their long-term conservation.
This includes the man happy healthy offspring of our reptiles and their progeny as well.
Also a decade back, a fantastic reptile handler and wildlife expert Les Williams of Ballan, near Ballarat died of cancer. He lived about an hour west of Melbourne, Australia in the town along the main Western highway. His legacy lives on daily as we do mobile reptile shows in Melbourne, Melbourne reptile parties and reptile displays with a Spotted Black snake bred by him just before he passed on.
The snake has never bitten anyone and is a priviledge to hold. We use her and other venomous snakes to de-demonize them in our shows, kid's reptile parties, corporate event show education and venomous snake handling courses and show people how nice they are.
Our company is different to other reptile show businesses in Australia. Our company is alone with hands on reptile shows that as a rule let people hold the animals. We treat them nice and with care and respect and make sure people do the same.
Most of our competitors trade on the fear factor, like that ecoterrorist Steve Irwin, who was eventually killed when mistreating a Sting Ray, and like Irwin they demonize all snakes, belting them about with sticks and then complaining about how aggressive the snakes are after they have had their bones broken.
This is their so-called education! We call it reckless misinformation.
Now if I smashed your bones and then harassed you to attack me, would that really be fair on you?
All I can ask, is that next time you see a complete fool attacking or harassing a supposedly aggressive snake with sticks and tongs ask yourself at a reptile show, in Melbourne or anywhere else, is it the snake or the snake handler who is the most aggressive one?
All the best from the snake handling team here.