'I'd do it again': Snake handler
A snake handler slammed for allowing a potentially deadly snake to bite his 12-year-old daughter during a live show has offered to perform the stunt again.
Raymond Hoser allowed a taipan and a death adder to bite his daughter, Adelyn, in front of a shopping centre audience to prove his snakes are not venomous, and he insists he would do it again if he had to.
The bizarre stunt came after Mr Hoser, 49, was fined for breaching his commercial wildlife demonstrator licence.
He copped a $12,000 penalty in the County Court last week for demonstrating with venomous snakes less than three metres from the public, and working in a manner that put the animals at risk in 2008 and 2009.
But he defends using his young daughter as a prop to prove his deadly reptiles are not dangerous.
Mr Hoser insists Adelyn would have been dead within minutes had the snakes been poisonous.
And despite the condemnation, the handler, of Park Orchards, offered to perform the stunt for a second time.
"She's been bitten many times," he told 7News. "She knows what it's about and she's happy.
"She'll take a bite for you now. It's not a big deal in this house.
"My snakes are completely safe, they have been completely safe for seven years."
Happy to take part, Adelyn, said it was no more painful than a sport injury.
"I play basketball and stuff and there are lots of pushes so I've had worse. It didn't really hurt."
Adelyn says it gave her bragging rights at school, adding: "I volunteered to do this.
"I was under no pressure. If I didn't want to do it, dad would be like 'okay'."
Mr Hoser is director of reptile education company Snakebusters.
Would you allow your child to be bitten by a snake? Leave your comments below.
