Snakebusters – news updates …
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4 August 2011 - Global financial crisis ... look no further than home!
Today Victorian County Court Judge Campton effectively threw out DSE's false claims against Raymond Hoser and Snakebusters. DSE compliance boss Glen Sharp had sought a maximum fine totalling over $100,000 plus payment of DSE's legal costs, that they claimed at over $50,000 as punishment for Raymond Hoser breaking DSE's permit conditions 11-14. The problem was that the offences Hoser had ostensibly committed were not written into the conditions. The judge condemned DSE for effectively entrapping Hoser and while she had mooted the possibility of a "Good Behaviour Bond" for Hoser as a result of the unnecessary court case, she was bound by rules such as "parity of sentence" and hence had to fine Hoser, $4,000 plus $8,000 towards DSE's costs. The next port of call for this ongoing legal saga, is likely to be VCAT, where Hoser will seek restitution of his legal and fine costs arising from the wrongful prosecution and abuse of process by DSE. This amount is likely to be in excess of $30,000.
PS. As a result of an expert witness Statement by Dr. Richard Funk of the USA, (see here), stating that the Hoser venomoids were safe ... something everyone knew all along, DSE also agreed to concede the point. However midway through the County Court hearing and on instruction of DSE's Simon Toop, the DSE Barrister, Mr. Bird, reversed his tune and said the DSE would "never" admit that Hoser's venomoid snakes were safe, regardless of what evidence existed. Among other evidence before the judge was a video of Hoser's 12 year-old-daughter taking bites from adult Taipan and Death Adder (with no effect), to prove that venomoids were safe and to shatter Bird's rehashed claim of imminent disaster if a Hoser venomoid snake a child at a display. The Judge demanded that if DSE seek to prosecute Hoser again for permit breaches, that they should not entrap him by giving him instructions that he followed to the letter, as had happened in this case. The basis of this case was that Hoser had paid $5,000 for DSE approved barriers, used without incident for 5 years before the case came to the County Court, when DSE declared they wanted something else instead.
PPS. The $100,000 of taxpayer's money spent and effectively wasted pursuing Hoser over a vendetta could have been better spent on projects such as environmental sustainability.

6 July 2011 - Don't bother trying to steal our snakes!
After the illegal incitement of people to attack Snakebusters displays by Sean McCarthy (calling himself "Snakehandler"), we today took out a court issued "Intervention Order" to stop him from these attacks. Over the past few months, McCarthy and an associate Michael Alexander (Black Snake Productions) had repeatedly encouraged people to attack Snakebusters shows, steal reptiles, damage property and the like in order to undermine us. On one weekend in March 2011, Snakebusters were attacked at no less than four major events and had a crocodile stolen at one, a sign at another and false and malicious complaints made at all four. Furthermore, via numerous websites and chat forums, including one on facebook called "Ray Hoser, Melbourne's Biggest Wanker" both men had made numerous false and defamatory statements with a view to inciting hatred for Snakebusters and Raymond Hoser. Recall also that McCarthy was associated with Dane Bender who was busted after stealing a snake at Mansfield on 20 November 2011 (see below). The catalyst for seeking the intervention order was a series of posts inciting people to attack Snakebusters displays at shopping malls and with two malls about to be visited by Snakebusters for each week of the upcoming July School Holidays.
The intervention order prevents McCarthy from the following:
1 - Stalking, assaulting, harassing, threatening or intimidating the affected person (Raymond Hoser),
2 - Damaging any property of the affected person or threatening to do so,
3 - Following the affected person or keeping him under surveillance,
4 - Publishing on the internet, by e-mail or other electronic communication any material about the affected person,
5 - Contacting or communicating with an affected person by any means.
6 - Approaching or remaining within 5 metres of an affected person,
7 - Going to or remaining within 200 metres of 488 Park Road, Park Orchards or any other place where an affected person lives or works,
8 - Getting another person to do anything he must not do under this order.
It is the last condition that is most important, noting that McCarthy has been associated with numerous people sent to Snakebusters displays to attempt to steal reptiles and if caught, then trying to create disturbances and make false complaints. Recent examples of such individuals (and where busted) included, Dane Bender (Mansfield), Jake Lynagh (Lucindale) and Camilla Martin, who also happens to work for Melbourne Zoo (Brunswick).
Snakebusters and staff can now devote their main attention to their core business of reptile education, rather than dealing with thefts and other attacks from people working for inexperienced imitators.

4 July 2011 - Snakebite deaths lead to new calls to ban reptiles in captivity.
Recent deaths of handlers from snakebites in three continents has led to the predicted calls to outlaw reptiles in captivity, with new restrictions proposed in the last week in the USA, UK and Europe as well as Australia.
In a 2004 paper, Snake Man Raymond Hoser predicted this inevitable outcome if and when a number of experienced snake displayers got killed by their snakes within a short period. The 2004 paper described in detail a then new procedure to painlessly surgically devenomize snakes to remove public safety and handler risks. Besides trying to gather a reasoned resistance to calls to ban reptiles as pets, Raymond Hoser has also called on other demonstrators to “do the right thing” by themselves, the public and their snakes and invest in the expertise to have their dangerous display snakes surgically devenomized. Today Hoser said “No one can guarantee a bite won’t occur and it’s reckless in terms of public safety not to have devenomized deadly snakes on public display”.
Snakebusters remain the only zoo or demonstrator in Australia using devenomized snakes in all their venomous reptile shows.

30 June 2011 - Four handlers killed by their snakes this year!
The tragic death today of snake expert Luke Yeomans from the bite of his King Cobra, means that four well-known snake handlers have been killed handling their snakes in 2011. The others were Aleta Stacey killed by a Black Mamba just days prior to Yeomans’ death, and also Dirk Spring and Wade Westbrook, both bitten and killed by “pet” snakes. These 2011 fatalities follow the snakebite deaths of of snake handlers Ron Siggins and James Bear. These six snake handler bite deaths, including one in Victoria are a mere fraction of the total bites involving handlers rushed to hospital as a result of bites incurred during displays and the like.
Only Snakebusters use devenomized snakes in their deadly snake displays, guaranteeing both the safety of everyone and the snake’s welfare, by eliminating the use of sticks and tongs to handle the snakes.
Remember, if it’s not Snakebusters, then it’s a risk!

30 May 2011 – Bootleggers everywhere - over 800 webpages killed! ...
Last week we killed off over 800 "youtube" webpages run by serial trademark bootlegger Tony Harrison of Queensland. The webpages all used the trademarked word "snakeman" and hyperlinked to his own webpage, so that his outranked ours on "Google" searches so he could unlawfully divert people to his site and steal customers searching for the real snakeman, Raymond Hoser. Because he had ignored cease and desist requests as far back as 2009 and had uploaded illegal backlinks just hours earlier (in May), we decided to go to Youtube to have the sites removed. Harrison had also put many backlinks using the "snakeman" trademark on numerous non-English webpages for the sole purpose of getting his site to usurp our own. Lacking remorse for his misconduct, Harrison retalliated and went to Channel 7 news to try to do a "hatchet job" on us, but it backfired on him when the news merely reported the facts, as in Harrison had been breaking the law. Meanwhile back in Melbourne, SEO king and serial trademark bootlegger, Josh Cox was again placing google adverts to usurp our own webpages for trademark searches of snakebusters, snakeman and other trademarks we own, as well as ads to usurp other lawful businessnames and trademarks including "animal tracks". He got another "Cease and desist" letter from us, as did another trademark bootlegger, Sean McCarthy. McCarthy's response was to apply to register two "snake handler" trademarks, one being a bastardized "Landcare" logo, which we assume they'll oppose and block and the other for the unregisterable "words only" trademark. Generic terms used to describe something common are not trademarkable under trademark laws. McCarthy's aim is clearly to monopolize internet searches for the generic term "snake handler" in order to gain business for his snake shows that are best known for displaying his brutal attacks on snakes with metal tongs.
For more see the media release here:
http://www.smuggled.com/trademark-bootlegger-loses-over-800-illegal-webpages.htm

8 March 2011 – It's official! DSE officers Sharp and Gibson are corruptly allowing wildlife demonstrators to put the lives of members of the general public risk...
In an interview at Eltham Police Station today, DSE Compliance head, Glenn Sharp again said that he had no concern about repeated breaches of the Wildlife Act and the OH and S Act 2004 by several wildlife demonstrators, including Sean McCarthy (Snakehandler), Michael Alexander (Black Snake Productions), Andrew McKenzie (Animal Tracks) and Josh Cox (Reptile Encounters). The first two had displayed venomous snakes at a dangerously close range to the public (less than 9 feet), not within a DSE approved "Pit", the last three all illegally allowing members of the public to pat and even hold venomous reptiles in violation of the rules supposedly imposed on them. This conversation was taped by the DSE officer, Sharp himself and we now have the tape and transcript of the relevant conversation. Sharp's own criminally corrupt protection of these displayers is even more apparent noting that it was he who ordered Snakebusters be prosecuted for putting the public at risk with venomoid snakes that he had previously admitted he knew were totally safe and not a risk in yet another taped conversation.
For those who want to see examples of some of the breaches of the Wildlife and OH and S Acts, by the named demonstrators and others including "Zoos Victoria" (Melbourne Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary), see the file here.

3 March 2011 – Bootlegger warning ... again. Snakebusters sent a load of "cease and desist" letters to inexperienced bootleggers, including carriers of their adverts, such as "Melbourne's Child" and "Kidspot" using Snakebusters registered trademarks. Illegal use of trademarks was also used to usurp us on "Google" and the like, in breach of trade practices and trademarks laws. Josh Cox of newly licenced "company" named "Reptile Encounters" was directed to stop placing a google advert using a registered and protected trademark to win google searches, a request he reluctantly complied with. Prior to stopping the illegal use of the trademark, his google advert had run for several months and been illegally diverting customers to his "search engine optimised" website.

1 March 2011 – Knocked up! Loads of Snakebusters reptiles pregnant. This includes at least two raised from birth three-year old Red-bellied Black Snakes. The father for the unplanned pregnancies was the brother of the other snakes. The matings took place during snake shows as the snakes live in cages alone.

16 Feb 2011 – It's official! Hoser's venomoids are all venomous and dangerous. It's official! The hundreds of snakebites from Hoser venomoids that have not had an effect on anyone are all so-called "dry bites". This pearl of wisdom first came from lawyers acting for DSE and Melbourne Zoo, DSE staff as witnesses, Melbourne Zoo "experts" Jon Birkett and Helen McCracken, in a case they had launched against Hoser expressly to stop the successful juggernaught called Snakebusters, from capturing an ever increasing share of the wildlife education market. Under cross examination, these witnesses retracted the anti-venomoid claims and admitted that none of them had a clue about venomoids, no experience at all either with the surgery or the snakes themselves and that yes, as far as the evidence stood, the Hoser venomoids were in fact safe and non-venomous. Problem was that in his totally corrupt haste to find against Raymond Hoser, Magistrate Greg McNamara overlooked the retractions and declared that all Hoser's snakes were dangerous. He stated that Hoser was delusional to believe otherwise. The wording was almost identical to VCAT Judge Anne Coghlan's 2008 claim that Hoser was delusional to believe that DSE's negligence could possibly cause dozens of deaths in the next major bushfire (just months before fires killed over 160 Victorians on 7 Feb 2009). Not surprisingly the Magistrate's corrupt ruling has been appealed. No one however has an expectation that the government picked County Court judge will run the case any better or make a decison that goes against what the government and DSE tell them to make.

15 Feb 2011 – It's official! Snakebusters are Australia's best reptiles! In a rare move the trademarks office, gave Snakebusters the trademark. This means no other second-rate displayer can make the false claim they are best, better than Snakebusters, or anything else that may imply they are better than us. Full details by clicking the the linked phrase Australias best reptiles.

29 January 2011 – Long-term snake wrangler, Wade Westbrook died after being bitten at his home in East Ridge, Chattanooga, USA, while handling a copperhead. Following the death, wildlife officers raided other reptile keepers and seized collections of snakes and called for a banning of all reptiles as pets! If the snake had been a venomoid, nothing would have happened and the "hobby" of reptile keeping in the USA would not now be under threat. Demand venomoids at your next snake show to avoid risk of an unforseen disaster!

21 January 2011 – The idiots arrive in Rocky! Trying to muscle in on local snake catchers and to get some cheap publicity to upstage Snakeman Ray Hoser's front page grab in the newsmedia (see below), novice Victorian snake handlers, Sean McCarthy and Paul Fisher turn up at Rockhampton to "rescue" locals from snakes. The term "snake handler" is used with licence here as they actually use barbaric tongs to grab, mutilate and hold snakes rather than actually handling them. Not surprisingly a Brown Snake took umbrage to cruel mistreatment and chomped Fisher on the face, the result being he was rushed to hospital for snakebite. The lack of handling expertise was not a good look and so there were no front page spreads of them with handfuls of deadly snakes! Instead they did an excellent job of keeping the whole incident under wraps and hidden from most media. They made a less honourable exit from Rocky shortly thereafter.

5 January 2011 – Floods in Rocky, need a good Taipan photo!
The one in a century flood hit Rockhampton and the venomous snakes were everywhere. News media needed a good photo of a real snake handler holding a Taipan (or two). None in Rocky, so AAP sought out the "snake man" Raymond Hoser and got what they wanted. Holding no less than five adult Taipans at once, a photo of Raymond Hoser and a Snakebusters logo was in most major papers that day. Noting that all the snakes had regenerated venom and were dangerous (recall DSE, Shane Hunter and Anne Coghlan said so and her VCAT judgement has been hailed with the sanctity of the words of Christ), holding five Taipans at once makes it a new world record!

3 January 2011 – death and destruction - Snake tongs!
This time it's not just the snakes getting killed by morons using snake tongs to handle them. Recently, no less than three so-called snake handlers have landed in hospital for serious snakebites after mishandling venomous snakes. All had been taught to handle snakes with metal tongs by a novice snake handler Sean McCarthy in his ostensibly "nationally accredited" snake handling course. One of the victims had apparantly been carted off to hospital for several bites! At end 2010, the DSE, AVRU and Zoos Victoria all stonewalled attempts to get the statistics and true extent of death and destruction by striking out summonses to deliver up Victorian Snakebite records involving reptile handlers.

2 January 2011 – Bootleggers everywhere...
After other inexperienced reptile demonstrators ganged up on Snakebusters and publicly demonized our "hands on reptiles" shows, Snakebusters registered the trademark (see for 2008). Of course, being the only "hands on reptiles" company meant that more people wanted Snakebusters than anyone else. In yet another act of dishonesty, several demonstrators who had been publicly demonizing the "hands-on reptiles" shows, began touting for business by claiming they too did "hands on reptiles" on their websites and in printed adverts in late 2010. Snakebusters got the legal letters happening and stopped most in their tracks, forcing adverts in print and online to remove the words "hands on" from their descriptions. In early 2011, a round of letters went out to stop a number of amateur's (including Lucas, see below) caught out trying to bootleg Raymond Hoser's established "snake man" and "snakeman" trademarks. Some were using Search engine optimized sites (SEO) with the trademarks to gain traffic to their business, which breached both trademark and trade practices laws, the latter being serious criminal offences..

20 December 2010 – Told you so!
About two years ago, Snakebusters issued several public warnings about snake handling courses being taught by reptile novice Jonno Lucas. In October 2010, he was found guilty by Fair Trade Queensland of ripping people off with his ostensibly "accredited" snake handling courses. Via a court enforceable order, Lucas had to put a notice on his website apologising to his victims and admitting that he had lied to customers to gain business. It turned out that for most of the previous two years he'd been unlicenced, uninsured and so on. The notice only came to our attention after it was posted on an internet forum (APS) on 12 December 2010, apparantly posted by one of his disgruntled customers. Lucas sponser's the forum and the post and notice was removed within minutes. Lucas then claimed on the same forum that he'd done nothing wrong! For the only reptile courses taught by an internationally recognised expert, it must be a Snakebusters snake handling course.

10 December 2010 – Upstaged by the staff!
Congratulations to Tom Cotton and Michael Smyth for getting front page of the Geelong Advertiser! Raymond Hoser's never done better than page three in that paper. The photos taken were of them and a kid buried "hands-on" with reptiles. I think the kid preferred holding the animals to looking at a whiteboard!.

25 November 2010 – Snake thief busted!...
At last weekend's Mansfield Agricultural Show, diligence by Snakebusters staff paid off. It resulted in the police arrest of Dane Bender after he stole a Diamond Python from the Snakebusters display. After arrest, Bender said he was working for an inexperienced imitator of Snakebusters, Sean McCarthy (he trades under the deceptively similar name of "Snakehandler") and that he'd stolen the snake to allow his friend McCarthy to claim Snakebusters were being reckless in "allowing" their reptiles to be stolen. Police stated they would hit Bender with a theft charge. The recovered snake was reasonably well after the incident, save for it's collection of a few snake mites and a spinal injury above the vent.

3 June 2010 – $9,900 cash payout to Snakeman/Snakebusters for an IP breach...
This week's payout follows the deliberate propagation of false statements alleging the Hoser devenomized snakes had regenerated venom and the simultaneous promotion of an inferior outfit that does not have devenomized snakes and was seeking to improperly steal clients from Snakebusters. This is the third similar payout. The full media release is on the web at:
http://www.smuggled.com/IPPay1.htm.

26 April 2010 – Not another one...
Today we stopped another bootlegger, this time a newly licenced snakehandler by the name of David Walton of Cairns from calling himself the "snakeman". He was advertising the same on an online directory so we had to have the word "snakeman" removed from his listing as we own the trademark and we have never heard of him. Why is it that so many newly licenced reptile handlers have a complete disregard for ethics, intellectual property rights and the like? Meanwhile all this IP stuff diverts our attentions away from our world-leading conservation and research.

23 March 2010 – More world firsts - first ever breeding of P. textilis rollinsoni this season. Also world's first successful artificial insemination of a Hill Death Adder Acanthophis bottomi Hoser 1998. While talking world firsts, here's one we never had ... venomoids regenerating venom. All ours were tested as recently as 23 March 2010 and failed to yield any venom ... but don't let this inconvenient fact get in the way of the truth haters!

17 March 2010 – Got this e-mail today. "Ray, loved your snake in the Herald Sun today page 81. I knew it was yours because it was in immaculate heath. All the other Melbourne snake demonstrators have snakes mangled by tongs and/or crawling with mites! Pete"
... Yes, he was spot on!

9 March 2010 – Three snakehandlers bitten by deadly snakes this week and rushed to hospital, one in a coma! Two were recent graduates of those "other" venomous snake handling courses, that the provider of makes false claims about and that teaches people to torment snakes with tongs. Any wonder they were bitten?
Full media release at:
http://www.smuggled.com/Snakehandler_bite_today_Near_fatal_not_Snake_busters.htm

Feb 2010 - What the ???? - "Sam the Koala" is an imposter! There's actually a male "Sam", the drinking one, who has been rebranded as "Bob", a long-term captive and the female imposter "Sam", stuffed and sitting in the Victorian National Museum - See Australasian Journal of Herpetology, Issue 8 for the full details.
Link is at:
http://www.smuggled.com/AJHIP1.htm

15 Jan 2010 – Bootlegger of Snakebusters business name stopped!
full media release at:
http://www.smuggled.com/medre176.htm

23 March 2009 – Cobras Caught / Naja Nuked!
The genus as generally recognised to 2009 is chopped into four in a landmark paper. Snakeman Raymond Hoser names two new genera, "Wellsus" and "Spracklandus" in honour of two internationally acclaimed and recognised reptile taxonomists.
To see the (Hoser/Snakebusters) media release about the paper, download an abstract, the whole paper etc, go to:
http://www.smuggled.com/CobMR1.htm

14 March 2009 – Rattlesnakes rattled!
Snakeman Raymond Hoser a week prior, publishes the largest ever taxonomic revision of the rattlesnakes, a landmark paper in the new millenium. The end result is the splitting of the group from one or two genera to up to 16. The paper itself lists nine, with an additional 7 subgenera named, likely to be elevated in the future. Within days some of the most influential herpetologists in the USA endorsed the split in toto, which was unsurprising, as the paper's conclusions were based on molecular data from a number of other scientists published in earlier papers. This hasn't stopped a group of misfits flooding internet forums with claims the Hoser paper was all guesswork. For the uninitated, bitchiness, name-calling and the like are part and parcel of the (sometimes so-called) scientific community, but in theory at least, science eventually finds the truth, while law doesn't. CNAH (Centre for North American Herpetology), reposted the paper and key summary on their site immediately, sending the news through the reptile community like a brushfire.
Warning: If you have a thin hide, don't publish scientific papers, books and the like!
On a more positive note, Raymond Hoser said, "The opportunity to name new genera of well-known snakes gave me a rare opportunity to recognise the good work of others by naming taxa after them". Included here were dedicated reptile people and staff of Snakebusters who work at the coalface of reptile eduction.
To see the (Hoser/Snakebusters) media release about the paper, download an abstract, the whole paper etc, go to:
http://www.smuggled.com/RatMR1.htm

Feb 2009 – Hands on with Snakebusters reptiles trumps everything ... where's the tape measure!
In January and February, newly licenced rival demonstrators decided to send hecklers to two malls and several events in order to disrupt Snakebusters. At these venues the hecklers tried to claim it was "illegal" to allow public the right to handle non-venomous reptiles. Added to that the false complaints by these people to various government authorities, we found ourselves getting "raided" when doing snake shows in front of dozens of people, or in the case of a shopping mall, over 300 people. In that case the crowd turned on the hecklers and then the two attending DSE officials telling them to stop creating problems where none existed. At the Endeavour Hills mall, DSE officials ran around measuring barriers and forced the use of a "tape measure" to push people at least 10 feet from the reptiles, sparking a riot in the mall. Meanwhile an out of control bushfire that DSE people should have been fighting was burning nearby. Since then over 40 people died at another blaze at Marysville as a result of a DSE employee failing to issue a warning to residents of an impending fire on 7 Feb 2009.
In spite of these uncalled for obstacles, malls and events reported the events were as always hugely popular, drawing crowds beyond anything else. For Endeavour Hills and Cranbourne Malls, both had been visited by Snakebusters for one week stints three times over the past six years. Managers at both malls were planning the fourth incursion of what has long been their most popular attraction. Two independent newspaper reports reported on the events that were disrupted summarising that Snakebusters were vastly superior to any other wildlife demonstrations.
Snakebusters boss Raymond Hoser summed up saying, "We will not reduce our standards to keep inferior rivals or their mates at DSE happy. Instead these people and the DSE should work to raise the others to an acceptable standard." As it happens Snakebusters regularly passes up bookings because they are too busy, so it'd be fair to assume that there is more than enough work to keep all demonstrators busy, assuming the others are able to raise their standards.

Feb 2009 – Snake wants to bite you? ... stop tormenting it! ...
In a definitive paper published in Australia's leading reptile journal, namely Australasian Journal of Herpetology Australia's Snakeman, Raymond Hoser shows for the first time that snakebites are usually caused as a result of pain being inflicted on a snake. They are never caused by "aggression" in the snake. At all times the "flight" response is overwhelming and to "fight" or bite is either when there is no alternative or if the snake is suffering from pain, or expects it. View the paper in full on the web as a pdf at:
http://www.smuggled.com/AJHI5.pdf.

Feb 2009 – New reptiles everywhere! ... and not just the annual crop of baby snakes at Snakebusters.
Australia's snakeman, Raymond Hoser published four major papers in Australia's leading reptile journal, namely Australasian Journal of Herpetology.
Between them they resolved the taxonomy and nomenclature of a whole suite of Australasian reptiles. Included were descriptions of a new species of lizard from near Shepparton in Victoria, several new subspecies of venomous snake and python and included was a new subspecies of Green Python from PNG. MtDNA showed the new Green Python to have at least a 3% separation from the nominate race and it's also geographically isolated to Normanby Island, Milne Bay, PNG.
That's what separates Snakebusters from other newly licenced reptile demonstrators in Victoria. Only Snakebusters are recognised experts and world leaders in their field with published papers in leading journals spanning three decades.

Jan 2009 – Hoser's Python, Leiopython hoserae confirmed (again) by mtDNA.
The Hoser family had about 5 million reasons to celebrate with yet more mtDNA evidence showing the species had been seperate from it's nearest known relative, the D'Albert's Python for about 5 million years (10% divergence). The latest results put the final coffin into the arguments of a small band of so-called snakies who had been swamping the internet with claims that the species first scientifically described and named by Raymond Hoser in 2000, didn't exist. Raymond Hoser was quoted saying "the difference between science and the law is that science eventually finds the truth. Law tends to hide it. In fact the law and those who practice and enforce it often have a paranoic fear of the truth. This was perhaps best demonstrated by the DSE and their lapdog, Anne Coghlan of VCAT who late in 20008 did everything possible to hide and deny the truth in terms of devenomized snakes."
By the way Hoser's Python is not a venomous species, regardless of what idiotic rulings "Judge" Anne Coglan of VCAT makes!.

Dec 2008 – Most other wildlife demonstrator's seize on Coghlan judgement to demonmize "hands on reptiles", by Snakebusters. Coghlan's claim was that "hands on reptiles" is not educational in any way and in fact is best described as a "circus". Snakebusters competitors supported the Coghlan judgement and reposted it widely including on sites like "wikipedia". They all continued to demonize Snakebusters and in particular the "hands on reptiles" shows. In turn Snakebusters sought to register the "hands on reptiles" trademark (ultimately successful).

Nov 2008 – Raymond Hoser decided to test the credibility of "The Age" online reporter Mex Cooper,
who along with corrupt VCAT judge Anne Coghlan, had knowingly falsely published a report stating that the Hoser venomoids had regenerated venom and were dangerous. In front of a huge audience of the general public, on 30 November, at the Rosebud Pet Expo, Raymond Hoser was filmed forcing Taipans, Tiger Snakes and a Death Adder (6 snakes total), putting their fangs into his arm. As expected, nothing happened, and that was because venomoids do not regenerate venom. We put the video on youtube at:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SL_IQUy0jGg&feature=channel but the site was bombarded with complaints from rivals who didn't want the truth about venomoids to get out and so the video was removed in December 2008.
Stunned that it was so easy to censor the truth from the internet, we simply reposted the same video all over the place including on "myspace", "facebook" and elsewhere so that it cannot be missed or "deleted" quite so easily! Our advice is to save the whole video to disk, just in case it gets wiped from the internet. View it now on this server at: http://www.smuggled.com/TBPPE2.mpg.

Oct 2008 – Mex Cooper of the "Age Online" does a hatchet job report on Raymond Hoser and the venomoid snakes. The so-called journalist was worded up to do a one-sided report rehashing the lies from Shane Hunter to DSE, through VCAT "judge" Anne Coghlan, that the Hoser venomoids have all regenerated venom and are dangerous. Hoser complained and material in the report was changed, but it remained a one-sided hatchet job. The newspaper report failed to mention that "The Age" itself had videotaped venomoid bites of Hoser and instead claimed that there was not a shred of evidence to support the contention that venomoids were in fact safe (see Nov 08 report above). Coghlan also deliberately ignored several videos of venomoid bites in order to add credibility to her corrupt, warped and dishonest judgement, that if nothing else is a shocking indictment of the quality and honesty of the judges in the Victorian legal system.
What Cooper at The Age also failed to report was that the newspaper had recently paid Raymond Hoser $9,000 as a damages payout for illegally bootlegging his material as part of a court settlement. Hence the obvious motive to "get back" at Raymond Hoser.

Oct 2008 – Raymond Hoser's name now stamped on the world's longest snake!!!
After four years, common sense prevails. The 2003/4 designation of "Broghammerus" as the genus name for the world's longest snake, the Reticulated Python has finally been confirmed in a published study via MtDNA. Rawlings et. al. reviewed the world's pythons and their evidence came out in total support of all the (then) controversial Hoser findings from major 2000 and 2003/4 papers, which conducted a similar review. Rivals of Hoser had widely posted that Hoser had "lost the plot" and that his taxonomy studies were rubbish, even going so far as to publish diatribes in several journals and threatening editors who were set to publish material corroborating the Hoser position. The web is similarly littered with such garbage. However the advantage of science over law is that eventually truth wins, and the paper that finally beat the blockages was published by Rawlings et. al. in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 93, 603–619. It's also online at: http://www.cnah.org/pdf_files/909.pdf.
From now on, all books and the like will record the world's longest snake genus as "Broghammerus Hoser 2004".
German Stefan Broghammer, the person honoured by having a genus named after him, is a highly regarded reptile scientist and major breeder of snakes.

Oct 2008 – Another award for a Snakebusters employee?
Adelyn Hoser wins first prize at the Swan Hill Show pet competition. Her entry was the world's first devenomized Inland Taipan, making her the first nine year old to enter the world's deadliest snake in a pet contest.! The prize was a ribbon, certificate and prize money of a dollar. The year before someone else entered a Snakebusters Olive Python to take out first prize.

Oct 2008 – Black snakes in the news for the wrong reasons.
In NSW a "tong grabber" named George Ellis was bitten by a Red Bellied Black Snake and carted off to hospital for a dose of anti-venom. These snakes rarely bite and when they do, it's invariably as a result of extreme pain inflicted on the snake, such as when having ribs broken with the metal back breakers. In other words, tongs aren't just dangerous for snakes, but for snake handlers as well!
In the latest of a series of safety breaches by newly licenced novice snake demonstrators, a Black Snake (not devenomized) escaped from a cage at the 2008 Melbourne Show. It wasn't established how it "escaped", but sometime later the snake was found wandering around a crowded pavillion. A serious bite from the snake could have been the excuse needed to close down all live reptile demonstrations. The newly licenced demonstrator was also in contravention of the OH and S Act, section 32, for having the venomous snake (with venom) there in the first instance.

Oct 2008 – Snakebusters outdraws rival operators (again)!
In a four cornered contest, Snakebusters consistently outdrew rival reptile demonstrators at other venues. Three other companies at other Melbourne malls and similar venues, drew average crowds of under 100 people per show. At Parkmore shopping mall, snakebusters drew an average of 250 per show for an entire week. Snakeman Raymond Hoser said "live reptiles", experience and "hands on" where people hold reptiles, will always outdraw any "mobile zoo" where it is merely a show, tell and touch if you get lucky. Malls across Melbourne are now on their second or third rotations of Snakebusters, with an average cycle of about 2 years.

Oct 2008 – Victory for the good guys!
An attempt to deregister Raymond Hoser's trademarks by David Williams, a man with serious smuggling and animal cruelty convictions has failed. Throughout 2008, he had tried to raise objections through the trademarks register to Raymond Hoser's ownership of the trademarks "Snakeman" (in various categories) as registered and owned by Hoser for some time. This failed campaign, included numerous online posts, letters to relevant persons, including appeals to object to IP Australia and the like. Raymond Hoser countered the attack by serving notice that persons illegally using tongs to brutalize, injure and kill snakes should under no circumstances use the word "snakeman" to describe themself. Likewise for others who may in any way dilute the trademark's effectiveness with unethical, cruel or illegal actions if and when calling themselves a "Snakeman".
The two trademarks at the centre of the dispute, were confirmed and sealed by IP Australia (the trademarks registrar) in October 2008. Another Hoser owned "Snakeman" trademark, registered and protected for some time, was largely unaffected by the recent dispute, although Williams did try to have that one set aside as well.

Sept 2008 – Whiteboards rule OK at DSE!
At a one-week VCAT hearing that cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars, DSE staff said repeatedly that "hands on reptiles" demonstrations were not the best way to educate people about reptiles. Under the guidance of departmental head, Ron Waters and others, DSE lawyer, Ms. Greenham argued to Anne Coghlan (the VCAT "Judge") that the educational message could be just as effective by dispensing with live reptiles and instead using a whiteboard! Coghlan bought this and the other insane DSE arguments, later labelling "hands on reptiles" as a circus. Raymond Hoser and other Snakebusters staff opposed the submission, which was part of the latest attack on the rights of the Victorians to keep live reptiles and/or have access to them. Teachers also opposed the crazy DSE submission, which in turn led to the comment, "what would they know?".
DSE also said they would continue to change laws to suit their agenda as they saw fit, which actually occurred midway through the VCAT matter. This all means that the days of private ownership of reptiles in Victoria may be limited. DSE are apparantly taking advice sourced from David Williams, a man with serious convictions for animal cruelty and wildlife smuggling, who also happened to be adversely named in both "Smuggled" books. In her later judgement Coghlan made a number of rulings in line with what DSE had requested. These were that the Hoser venomoids were still venomous and dangerous (in the first part of her judgement), with Coghlan stating that evidence from veterinarians, autopsies, test results and videos of bites by Taipans on Hoser and so on, did not consititute a shred of evidence to support the contention the venomoids were in fact harmless. This of course makes Raymond Hoser better than Jesus Christ or God himself, in that he has been able to survive dozens of bites from world's deadliest snakes without ill effect or any medical treatment or antivenom. Remember, the best Jesus Christ could do, was walk on water!
Hedging her bets both ways, later in the (written) judgement, Coghlan ruled that Hoser cannot hand out (what she asserts are now harmless) venomoids to people, because her competitors can't do this. DSE and Coghlan are no doubt hoping not too many people actually examine her judgement! The final upshot of the VCAT matter is the following:

1 - That Snakebusters will have to reduce their industry leading standards to comply with DSE demands (by using new barriers, restricting "hands on" to the public by (now) refusing to hand out specified taxa of reptiles, and the like),
2 - As intended by the DSE (and the persons pushing them), Snakebusters may lose business to inferior rivals,
3 - Any snakebite deaths arising from the activities of other demonstrators, including those not using venomoids, either at their events or arising from them due to improper teachings, will leave the DSE and the Victorian Government legally liable for damages (due to several reasons), (see October release above),
4 - Snakebusters will seek avenues of redress to maximise educational benefits of their demonstrations and public access of wildlife as per the preamble of the Wildlife Act,
5 - Besides aspects of the Coghlan judgement being blatently false in terms of factual account and also dishonest, it is also illegal under various state and Federal laws in several respects.
6 - The DSE may move to the next phase of a medium term agenda (peddled by rivals of Hoser/Snakebusters) to outlaw the rights of private persons to keep live reptiles and other wildlife.
By the way, the money DSE wasted on the VCAT matter could have been better spent saving our endangered wildlife and protecting people and property from bushfire risks caused by invading non-native vegetation like feral Pine Trees (Pinus radiata)!

Aug 2008 – Nothing shuts up an idiot!
See the video below ... To convincingly prove the Hoser venomoid (devenomized) snakes lack venom and don't regenerate it, Raymond Hoser was filmed by Melbourne TV news bulletins forcing nearly 40 venmomoids to bite him, all done three times in succession (over 100 bites), including world's top five deadliest, numerous times. This was done at Niddrie Secondary College in front of a huge audience of students and teachers. Hoser's arm was a mass of holes, but as expected Hoser didn't get sick or die!
A week later at a VCAT hearing, a DSE employed lawyer by the name of Greenham, successfully argued for a week that the Hoser venomoids were still deadly. VCAT Deputy President Coghlan, totally ignorant of snakes accepted the DSE request to disallow an examination of the said venomoids at the tribunal and refused to allow a repeat performance of the mass bites in her tribunal. She instead seemed convinced that the DSE lies about venom regeneration (sourced from smuggler David Williams and sidekick Shane Hunter via their internet website) had merit. Indicative of her general ignorance of snakes was her stated belief that Carpet Pythons were a dangerously venomous species during an argument to the effect that Hoser was reckless for not rushing a baby to hospital after it was bitten by a baby carpet python that didn't even pierce the skin!
Showing what kind of a moron Coghlan was, she also got very upset when an expert witness repeatedly told her that venomoid snakes don't regenerate venom as they have no venom glands. At that stage of the proceedings she still believed the lie that the snakes were venomous and dangerous.
The video below was shot at Norwood SC in 2008!

April 2008 – Over 100 baby snakes from venomoid parents at Snakebusters have in the previous 2 years been distributed for free to zoos and private facilities across Australia. If you see a Tiger Snake or Brown snake at a zoo or elsewhere, chances are it has come from Snakebusters!

March 2008 – Raymond Hoser becomes the first person in history to survive three Inland Taipan bites when bitten in front of an audience on 30 March. As an add-on, he never needed anti-venom for any, which was also apparently a world first for any such bite from the species which happens to be the world’s deadliest! While the snakes were devenomized or “venomoid” using Hoser’s world-leading methods, because the web is littered with false claims that these snakes regenerate venom and/or that they have venom and their mouths are shut with superglue, it is appropriate to make a big deal about surviving the bites in order to negate the idiot comments we get our attention drawn to. By the way, if the snakes did in fact have venom, most of Snakebusters staff would also be dead by now!

Jan 2008 – Raymond Hoser’s ground-breaking Artificial Insemination trials succeed. Snakebusters have world first reptile breedings using AI, in various reptiles including Bluetongues and Tiger Snakes in the summer of 2007/8! Major paper first published in January 2008.

Nov 2007 – Raymond Hoser reports the world’s first cross-genus matings in venomous elapid snakes in a scientific journal.

September 2007 – Snakebusters was rebooked at The Glen shopping mall for another week of shows, in spite of the false claims made to derail the booking/s (see earlier dates for 2006). Most Centro and other malls were by that stage in their second rotation of the successful Snakebusters shows, who continue/d to enjoy an effective monopoly on wildlife shows in malls, due to the reality and perception that no other reptile show is remotely as good as Snakebusters.

April 2007 – Due to increased demand from Shopping malls for the excellent educational shows by Snakebusters, Snakebusters for the first time double books malls in the April School holidays. Due to the success of the four mall bookings (a week per mall) across a fortnight, this was repeated in later school holidays in 2007.

April 2007 – Red Hill Show regulars, Snakebusters not booked in 2006 and 2007. Inferior outfit “Snakehandler” at event. Crowd numbers drop by over half in two years with change of reptile demonstrator blamed as the cause by local news media! The same thing happened at the Orbost and Ballarat Shows.

Jan 2007 – Snakebusters headhunted as “Australia’s best” as main act at the National Scout Jamboree.

October 2007 – In an independent survey of reptile and wildlife demonstrators, Snakebusters is rated “the best” in all criteria, as published in the Leader Newspapers. A similar statement rating Snakebusters as “the best” was made in the rival Fairfax newspapers a couple of years earlier. Later media reports comparing reptile shows/demonstrations consistently rated Snakebusters as the best.

July 2007 – As a result of lobbying by inferior business rivals, the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) seek to severely curtail and outlaw much of the “hands on” at reptile demonstrations as pioneered by Raymond Hoser/Snakebusters. With the support of school teachers and other educators, as well as massive numbers of petitions and signatures, Snakebusters says “no” and takes the matter to VCAT. Case continues into 2008.

November 2006 – Following on from the aborted raids at The Glen shopping mall, newly licenced demonstrators “Snakehandler” successfully lobby various authorities to outlaw venomous snake shows on the basis that Snakebusters have “an unfair competitive advantage”. Snakebusters resist these moves with general success.

March 2006 – Newly licenced demonstrator’s arrange to have Snakebusters “raided” during a show at The Glen Shopping mall, falsely alleging safety risks to initiate the raids. Raiding were officers from the Department of Sustainability, Worksafe, RSPCA, child protection agencies and others. Snakebusters and devenomized snakes were approved of as totally safe. Raids backfire on rivals with Worksafe at same time outlawing use of deadly species not devenomized for public demonstrations on safety grounds, thereby handing Snakebusters a Victorian monopoly on such shows.

January 2006 – World’s first breeding of surgically devenomized snakes, in this case namely Browns, Tigers and Death Adders by Snakebusters/Raymond Hoser. Later on other devenomized snakes of other species were also bred.

December 2005 – Hoser wins trademark battle. Prospero film productions, Bruce George and TV networks pay Hoser $39,500 for misuse of his trademark in TV show “Snakebuster”. Hoser retains all trademarks.

September 2005 – World First – Raymond Hoser details in scientific paper a pecking order or “hierarchy” among snakes of different taxa.

March 2004 – Major paper published. Raymond Hoser is the man who does the world’s first successful venomoid (snake devenomizing operations), involving the world’s deadliest snakes. Hoser rivals make false claims against the operation, including that it is impossible, with the claims believed by many. Meanwhile, Hoser refuses to do operations for others, often causing offence to those who are refused, but the operation is successfully copied by others, mainly in the USA and re-reported as same in major medical texts, including Mader 2006.

Aug 2003 and Nov 2003/June 2004 - Major papers by Raymond Hoser naming more new taxa of pythons. See Oct 2008 release.

August 2003 – Leading Herpetologist Raymond Hoser discovers and names a radically different new species of Brown Snake from Western New South Wales (Pseudonaja elliotti).

June 2003 – Biosecurity threat to Australia’s reptiles. For first time ever, Raymond Hoser identifies spread of virus through reptile collections and identifies source in NSW. See original paper from June 2003 and later ones.

April 2003 – Pseudonaja textillis pughi, a new subspecies of Brown Snake from New Guinea discovered and named by Raymond Hoser. Status confirmed in later paper by other authors.

September 2002 – Raymond Hoser names more new species of Death Adders in scientific paper. Confirmed later by MtDNA and other studies by independent scientists.

May 2002 – Raymond Hoser names new subspecies of Taipan from NW Australia.

Dec 2000 – Herpetologist Raymond Hoser exterminates a species of snake from Irian Jaya/New Guinea. He does this by renaming it a new species, namely Pailsus rossignollii. Later papers by other scientists confirm Hoser’s findings using Mitochondrial DNA studies. Pailsus rossignollii had been previously misidentified as “King Brown Snakes” a species found restricted to Australia and actually substantially different.

October 2000 – Major paper. Raymond Hoser reclassifies Australasian pythons naming several new taxa. Most prominent of these was a black python from New Guinea, formerly unnamed, as “Leiopython hoserae”. Several independent studies to 2008 confirm this and other findings in the 2000 paper.

September 1998 – Raymond Hoser names a new species of Deadly Snake “Pailsus pailsei” in honour of herpetologist Roy Pails. Unethical attempts by serial liar and convicted wildlife smuggler David John Williams to have the “Hoser name” removed, failed as the ICZN rules prohibited what Williams attempted.

April 1998 – Mr Death Adder, Raymond Hoser publishes a major study (paper) naming five new species of Death Adder, the largest number of new species of Death Adder ever! Later published MtDNA studies from the WA Museum and European scientists confirmed Hoser’s new taxa.

September 1997 – As a result of the Smuggled books published by Raymond Hoser, the NSW government ends a 24 year ban on the legal ownership of reptiles by private people in NSW. The government is flooded with new licence applications by the public.

April 1997 – Raymond Hoser improperly jailed for writing books exposing police and judicial corruption in Victoria. Released four months later. Cleared by Supreme Court of Appeal in 2001. The three relevant books were published in June 1994 and 1999 (2 books).

Dec 1996 – Attempts to ban the best-selling “Smuggled-2” through the NSW Supreme court failed three times in Nov/Dec that year. NPWS NSW and the State Government of NSW then put under renewed pressure as a result of the book to legalize private ownership of reptiles in NSW.

May 1993 – “Smuggled – The Underground Trade in Australia’s Wildlife” first published. Book was illegally banned by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), but media pressure forced the ban to be lifted a month later. It became a best-seller! For the first time in 20 years NPWS was under immense pressure to legalize private ownership of reptiles in NSW, including allow the public the right to have “hands on” with reptiles in education. Similar happened in all other Australian states including Victoria, where the book forced a major relaxing of reptile-related restrictions against the public.

September 1991 – “Endangered Animals of Australia” by Raymond Hoser, a 240 page encyclopedic reference on the subject hit the bookshelves. With minimal publicity, the title sold out within months. Australia Post put out a series of stamps of some of the animals in the book and sold the book to subscribers, but also ran out quickly.

September 1989 – The “Reptile Bible” is published. The 240 page “Australian Reptiles and Frogs” by Raymond Hoser was an instant hit, selling the entire print run within a short period. Hoser was then commissioned by the same publisher to do two more books, both later published.

June 1982 – “Death Adder Services” was first registered as a business name. This was the first Raymond Hoser business enterprise with reptiles and a precurser to later ventures and business names, including “Snakebusters”.

March 1980 – Raymond Hoser publishes a major paper on snakes aggregations in a peer reviewed scientific journal. He has averaged about 10 major papers per year in the following three decades. In the period 1995 to present, he has consistently rated within the top five most frequently cited Australian herpetologists in other herpetologists papers and books.

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