How not to keep a Taipan (or any other snake for that matter)

How not to keep a Taipan (or any other snake for that matter).
See photos below.

These day’s there is no shortage of self-appointed experts on reptiles and the following photos come from one of these.

In fact the photos are taken from his own video camera!

The man, a morbidly obese American, named Al Coritz posts regularly on internet forums and videos on “Youtube” touting his alleged expertise on venomous reptiles. He is a close friend of David John Williams of Australia (posting on the web under the name "toxinologist" and countless aliases), who is one of the few people to have numerous serious criminal convictions for both wildlife smuggling and animal cruelty to reptiles through the law courts of Queensland on a number of occasions for numerous offences/incidents.

However pictures speak louder than words and the following pictures taken from a couple of Coritz's own “Youtube” videos show a keeper who’s snakes are improperly housed and in demonstrably squalid conditions. From an animal welfare perspective, this is abhorrent. From a public safety point of view, it’s even worse!

From the perspective of fellow Americans who in 2008 are fighting to retain the rights of private individuals to keep reptiles, the material posted by Coritz on the web gives ammunition to the “anti’s” who want to ban private keeping of reptiles.

Authorities attention is drawn to the improper conditions as shown below, and the argument is raised against allowing private people to keep reptiles on the basis that Coritz’s maltreatment of reptiles is standard, which hopefully it isn’t.

Before the government closes down all private reptile keepers on the basis of cases like this, private reptile keepers themselves should close down the rogues as shown below, as they only draw adverse attention to the “hobby” of snake keeping.

What’s shown below are a series of shots of a squalid set-up with a newly acquired Taipan from island New Guinea. The video from where the images were taken can be accessed from “Youtube”, and are legally reproduced here as “fair comment” and “review” and not for any commercial or money-making purpose.

Shown is a cage with inadequate ventilation. Note the full view shots revealing only a handful of tiny holes for ventilation. Note also the visible condensation on the inside of the “cage”, a potential recipe for long-term respiratory infection and possible death.

Note the substrate and how it is littered with waste from the snake that hasn’t been cleaned out. That’s an inexcusable breeding ground for opportunistic bacteria, and again ultimate infection and death of the snake.

Note the tick lodged on the snake’s neck, which Coritz himself comments on in the video and also says he’s not removing it! Again, a vector for diseases including IBD, OPMV, reoviruses, bacterial diseases and others!

One shot of Ivermec, or if he’s too afraid to handle the snake (as he also states in the video) then even a spray would get rid of all the external parasites.

Which raises the obvious issue. Why is he keeping the snake if he’s afraid to handle it for the benefit of it’s own health?

The unshed skin on the snake, that the snake obviously cannot remove, should have been removed by the keeper or facilitated by him, as it can harden, causing complications and even death.

The cause of this may have been beyond Coritz’s control, as in when shipped before he obtained the snake, or because of the ticks, preventing shedding (as routinely happens when ticks lodge on a snake), but is no excuse for him to allow the problem to manifest and continue. The (permanent) humidity in the cage is not going to help the already dried skin on the snake in the cage, so to remove it, the snake must be placed immersed in water until the skin either flakes off or is easily peeled off.

The water bowl in the cage as shown is not appropriate for the cage due it’s lightweight plastic structure, due to the fact that it is easily moved by the snake and spilt as seen during the video, as the snake moves the water bowl around. The fact that the water’s been spilt into the paper substrate (as also seen in the video and photo taken from it) is why the humidity is so high in the cage, especially noting the lack of ventilation in the same cage.

Noting the obvious temperature of the cage (the cage temperature is obviously warm enough for the snake to feed), the high humidity due to water, cut paper and snake waste as a mixture, and the end result is a potentially deadly biological cocktail.

It’d be hard to find such a poorly set-up “cage” for any reptile, let alone a Taipan!

Hence the use of this example as a holotype of what not to do if setting up a cage for a reptile.

Talking public safety, there is shown in the images and videos, tools such as metal tongs on a rack that are not appropriate for snake handling. While it is possible that they are used for offering dead food as opposed to snake handling, Coritz has stated on numerous internet forums his support for the use of these objects to handle snakes and so it can be safely assumed he uses them for this.

Also of serious concern is the images of his head ducking and weaving past an overhead wire, that is clearly not safe in it’s shown position. Again, it’s an accident waiting to happen.

Who knows when he may do a John Weigel impersonation and have his reptile room burn down as a result of an alleged electrical fire. The end-point of course is an insurance claim payout that must ultimately be funded by other policy holders, perhaps even you and I!

Below: Photos of the atrocious set-up for the Taipan by Coritz.

Below - first photo - water bowl already spilt and wet paper inside water bowl. Snake with rubbed nose and no visible remedial action taken. Improper shed. All are also visible in further pics.

Below - photo of tub's "ventilation" ... one hole visible here. In otherwords it is virtually nil and woefully inadequate. Maybe the overweight Coritz should do some exercise and put more holes in his boxes!

Below - Improper hide box, waste matter on side of box and floor of cage, wet paper inside spilt water bowl (bottom left)!

Below - rubbed nose, alternative view of improper "hide box" with no ready access for keeper, condensation visible on inside of cage and rubbed nose of snake visible.

Below - unshed skin on snake, this section held on by a parasitic tick. Another view of inappropriate hide box. Substrate same colour as feces.

Below - photo of tub's ventilation. Virtually nil and woefully inadequate. Maybe the overweight Coritz should do some exercise and put more holes in his boxes!

Below: Side view of tub with no more ventilation holes visible!

Below - the squalor of the cage. Spilt and improper water bowl in cage. newspaper in water bowl and over lip. waste material mixed in substrate of cage and not removed. Unshed skin and side lesions where the snake's been unable to rub off the old skin.

Below - unshed and dried skin being left to adhere to the snake and held by tick. This is culpable and criminal cruelty to the reptile and actionable under USA laws.

Below - unshed and dried skin being left to adhere to the snake and held by tick. This is culpable and criminal cruelty to the reptile and actionable under USA laws. In the part of the video depicted in this image, the snake is seen easily pushing the (now empty) water bowl around the cage.

Below - the morbidly obese Coritz plays "cat and mouse" the dangerously positioned electrical wire that swings over his head as the video proceeds. He later moves his head in front of the wire. While it is acceptable for him to neglect his own health and welfare, he is not permitted by law to neglect the health and welfare of his snakes. Also see the tongs hanging at the rear of the picture. While tongs are acceptabloe for offering food to snakes (e.g. dead mice), they are not acceptable for handling snakes themselves as they break snake's bones, leading to early death. Coritz is one who advocates and promotes their use on snakes including supporting others who do so.

Below - two views of the spilt water bowl, showing the direction, side it spilt, with adhered paper on one side and the other clear side showing it's inappropriate structure for a reptile cage.

The right way to keep Taipans and other venomous snakes.