Demings said there had been no other recent reports of similar alligator attacks on the lake. She took over, and the show went on without a hitch. The incident comes after a four-year-old boy fell into the gorilla enclosure at Cincinnati Zoo last month. Snake handler, venom researcher. The event left Haast shaken and the next day, he shot the 1800-pound crocodile nine times. What amemorable time, nobody was dissapointed and we all calmed down and talked quietly afterwaeds. Sincerely, an understanding and appreciative person! Don Julio told the Mail Online: "The hardest thing for my wife was seeing the crocodile float with my son's body.". When he reached in to get it with his hook, he realized he had been had, then chose to play along and scare the audience who had already watched him take out a few deadly snakes from other boxes. Parents Don Julio and Margini Fernndez Flores were so traumatized by their son's death, they plan to move to Nicaragua to try and protect their other young children, aged between three and 16. "Not to mention pretty damn smart. Haast saw that a boy had fallen into the crocodile pit. Children shrieked in horrified glee. Haast's mental trauma over the boy's death eventually led to the closure of the Serpentarium on South Dixie Highway. 'There is no reason to visit Miami. Nice to see the photos again. He would shove the snake's fangs into the top of a vial and watch the venom trickle down. Eventually Bill charmed that snake and on one of its downstrikes quicker than the snake could react Bill had it behind the head and then as a finale milked a big load of venom. The animal was of no harm to anyone other than the fool who would allow his self to fall in. Icon: Bill Haast. My brother was always over there buying, trading snakes. He had done research for a polio vaccine, sought a cure for multiple sclerosis. I . She would take some of her snakes to Bill Haast. I think that this Dr., was loved by thousands of Miamians, because of him lives are save. All this may be imaginative conjecture of a teenage boy.. .Once thing sure, though, Him and his wife sure looked scary, to we boys, in those white Drs. boy killed by crocodile at miami serpentarium Many times Haast donated his blood to be used in treating snake-bite victims when a suitable anti-venom was not available. local news and culture. Today, Van Horn owns Reptile World Serpentarium near St. How lucky were we that we had this place? Originally, the shots immunized Haast against snake bites, an occupational hazard. The hotel is an upscale luxury resort owned by Disney and is one of three hotels on the monorail line. Anyone can read what you share. By 1984, interest in such roadside attractions like the Serpentarium had waned. Bowker had hooked. [2] After closing the Serpentarium, he opened the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories, a facility in Punta Gorda, Florida that produced snake venom for medical and research use. Responders at Disney World searching for boy who was dragged into a lagoon by an alligator. Five alligators have already been caught in the lagoon and euthanised for analysis. I was probably the first Bill Haast copycat and started self-immunizing with various snake venoms over here in London since the age of twenty. I recently saw Mr. Hasst on wild kingdon with Jack Hanna (aired 1997 maybe). Thanks again Bill.. I said yes, I got to feed his snakes white mice, met his daughter (she had a pet lion), used to catch snakes and sell them to Mr. MIAMI, Sept. 4 (UPI)A 12foot African crocodile that killed a 6yearold boy was killed today by the owner of the Miami Serpentarium, who pumped nine shots into it with a Luger pistol. As far as I recall, the Cobra on the roof was the one from the Serpentarium. Luckily I caught myself in time to stop myself from falling in. He is truely an extraordinary man. I followed his instructions and he was right. That was in 1971 and I kept that car until 3 years ago when I sold it for 35000.00 in pieces. I knocked and went in. When he was 19 he joined a man who had a roadside snake exhibit, and went with him to Florida. It is one stop from the Magic Kingdom Park and the Seven Seas Lagoon is popular with water lovers and boating enthusiasts. When she reached into the box and found movement inside she shrieked so loudly we could hear her from far across the large garden, and we chuckled "I guess she found it" Someone said. He was bitten for the first time at summer camp a year later, when he tried to capture a small timber rattlesnake. This will be of interest to some out there. Katherine White Popp, whose room is directly outside where the child was taken, said she overheard the mothers screams. ''I know some people have said that about Bill, but he is one of the hardest-working, most diligent, focused individuals you'll ever meet,'' said Van Horn, 62, who worked at the Serpentarium as a young man. "Since we don't know which cave it is, or which crocodile because there are several, it's very difficult to focus on a single point. Suddenly, he heard screaming and ran toward the commotion. We visited the Serp many times as a family visiting from Illinois and I have an autographed copy of Cobras In His Garden along with several movies that I gotta get moved over to DVD's.. Doc always took time to shake hands or pose for a picturetime that in retrospect I know he didn't really have to give, but he always did. My girlfiends and I would catch 7 - 8 foot Indio snakes and we would beg my mother to drive us over to the Serpentarium so we could sell the snakes to Dr. Haas. "And in the end the research could take care of itself.". LIVES SAVED But if a life was lost at the Serpentarium, Haast wants it known that transfusions from his immunized blood to snake victims helped save 21 lives. A 6-year-old boy fell into a crocodile pit and was killed. Crocodile Mauls Child to Death in Front of Horrified Parents We had a large clump of banana trees in our back yard, & she had called Mr. Haast to tell him that there was a coral snake down in the undergrowth of it, & could he please come & remove it? His wife Ann did not approve, and they eventually divorced. And in July, a woman in Florida died after she fell into a pond and was attacked by two alligators. At the time of the TV airing Mr. Haast was 87 years old and quite handsome he looked no older that early 50s. Now, he believes, the long-term benefits of the shots have spared him from many of the maladies of old age. After Bill sold the Serpentarium, our 12,000 sq.ft. . A second boy, 15, was bitten but escaped. Well I then came to his web site to find out how old Mr. Haast is today or if he is still alive. Turns out that I was talking to Bill Hast. One of the girls fainted right in my dad's arms! Thanks for putting it up! Mr. Hasst brought out a huge 16 foot long King Cobra and kept it controlled on the lawn in front of us. While on my honeymmon in Orlando we rode down to Miami to the Serpentarium and watched Bill milk some snakes. Looking back I'm glad it was in the dark because I never saw the snake Approximately an hour later my foot started aching and my parents looked all over my legs and feet for a bite mark. 12-year-old boy Charlie Buhl describes crocodile attack, rescue at The boy's family never sued, accepting only the maximum insurance payment, Haast said. I grew up in Miami and loved the Serpentarium. I came upon a reference to a varieth of the black racer that bears the name Coluber constrictor haasti. flashbackmiami.com/2013/11/26/serpentarium-2/, Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 15_5 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) GSA/219.0.457350353 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1. It was 1929. Soon after opening the Serpentarium, Haast began experimenting with building up an acquired immunity to the venom of King, Indian and Cape cobras by injecting himself with gradually increasing quantities of venom he had extracted from his snakes, a practice called mithridatism. He didn't do it out of anger because the crocodile was just doing what comes naturally to him, Clarita Haast said. During World War II, he was aboard flights that delivered food and medicine to Africa and Asia. I'm recommending this site to my grandson, Piers and now that I'm a snowbird residing in Ft. Myers part time, I'll keep watching for news of your 100th birthday party! I would see him periodically. The Depression killed the snake attraction, so Haast went to work for a bootlegger based in the Florida Everglades, until revenue agents busted their still. His next bite, later the same year, came from a four-foot copperhead. We used to hunt non-poisonous snakes in the Glades, Homestead farmlands: king snakes, red ratsnakes, yellow ratsnakes, indigos, black racers, etc., and take them down to mr Haas and he had a yardstick on the table and would measure them by the foot, pay us maybe .25cents/foot for the ratsnake, .35/foot for the kingsnakes, etc. Serpentarium Owner Dies at 100 - NBC 6 South Florida It was'nt the aninmal's fault that boy fell into the pit (the alligator was where he was suppose to be. #BreakingNews #Orlando pic.twitter.com/8AUeiXdmBk, Search crews at Grand Floridian Beach pic.twitter.com/wTCsxsJwNO, Search party is growing pic.twitter.com/AwpHtHwgXy. I am now 42 years with a very youthful appearance and in excellent health! But its very rare and it really is a shock to us to see this happen.. In his trademark white lab coat, he would approach a venomous reptile, lure it with one hand and grab its head with the other. The attack happened on Friday, Dec. 11 during the afternoon in Borneo, Malaysia. The last snake I had was a 12' burmese python that I owned a few years ago. But Haast no longer can handle the forked-tongued killers that made him famous. "We're the only fire-based response team in the world." We also used to go to his show at the Serpentarium, and it fascinated my brother. Sheriff Demings confirmed there was a sign near the water warning people not to swim. Its very surprising, its an extremely rare occurrence in anywhere you have alligators, but we do ask people to be mindful that we do have alligators in the water in Florida and you have to be careful, Mr Wiley said. He started extracting venom from his snakes when he was 15 years old, and dropped out of school when he was 16 years old. His cane was an exotic mixture of ebony and ivory. Legend has it that the Timacuan indians who lived there before the European settlers arrived, revered these snakes as Gods. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Snake man is master of poison and cure Bill Haast, 97, is lauded for pioneering work with snake venom By Kate Spinner Sarasota Herald-Tribune Published: Friday, July 11, 2008 at 4:30 a.m. CHARLOTTE COUNTY - Bill Haast's 97-year-old fingers, withered by scores of snake bites, are too weak to handle cobras and pit vipers anymore. He inspired a life long love of reptiles for me and now my two children.. In the past week, The Voice singer Christina Grimmie was shot dead and 49 people were also killed in Orlandos Pulse nightclub by gunman Omar Mateen in a terror attack. But I must say he had a good sense of humor too. My friend Jim Danaaldson who procured and trained animals for the film industry had set up a Reptile Exposition at Devonshire downs and I was an exhibiter . In 1954 Haast was bitten by a common, or blue, krait. BOY KILLED The attraction prospered until a tragedy in 1977. ''From the first day I walked into the Miami Serpentarium, I knew that was for me,'' he said. Except for the grey hair and receding hairline I would have said 'hasn't changed a bit". When we said goodby, I knew this was a moment I would remember for the rest of my life. Set in the American South in the 20th century. BILL PUT ON HIS MILKING SHOW WHEN A SNAKE IN BILL'S HAND WIGGLED AROUND AND SPRAYED A WHITE LIQUID FROM THE REAR OF THE SNAKE INTO THE CROWD AND ACROSS THIS WOMEN'S LEGS IN FRONT OF US. Most people working in the biological field take some pride in having a species or subspecies named for them, but Haast seemed to have none of that. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. Like for so many others, the Serpentarium was a place of wonder for me in my youth. Giant Crocodile Kills and Eats 8-Year-Old Girl in Front of - Newsweek I gathered from what he said that it would not bother him in the least were this variety of snake removed from its separate classification and returned to the larger taxon from which someone had extracted it. Thanks for the memories, as Bob Hope would say. 2, my first Indigo. They paid my mother something like $10 or more for the snake.