Every year we took a field trip there, and every year I looked forward to it. Glad to see many others share great memories of the Serpentarium. 'There is no reason to visit Miami. the coolest thing i remember is the sighn bill had on the stage while he was milking his terrorfying snakes "there is nothing more exciting then watching danger from a safe distance". The 2-year-old boy grabbed by alligator at Disney hotel has been found dead, a source says https://t.co/SyWdOq9L87 https://t.co/xLMVr0orfE. In 1965, Cobras in his Garden, a book about Haast's exploits, was published. Zoo director Thane Maynard said the zoos dangerous animal response team decided the boy was in a life-threatening situation and they needed to put down the 200kg male gorilla. He had a clinic called St. Jude Clinic on SW 8 Street. As a result of the damage, Haast gave up handling venomous snakes, and no longer kept any at his facility. "He's like an icon to people that know him," Cruz said. Hearing Bill got bit again, was not uncommon local news.The community always hoping on Bills incredible resilience to even the deadliest of snake bites. I have such respect for Mr. Haast and for all of his work. Set in the American South in the 20th century. The animal was of no harm to anyone other than the fool who would allow his self to fall in. It was in 1960, I was in my junior year at San fernando Valley State college at Northridge ,California. MIAMI, Sept. 3 (UPI)A 6yearold boy tumbled into a crocodile pit at the Miami Serpentarium today and a 14 foot, 1,800pound African crocodile snapped its jaws around the child's. I always told people I'd live past 100, and I still feel I will. Staff at the resort were unwilling to comment on the incident. Senseing this the king made an immediate move toward the door to challenge. Today, Van Horn owns Reptile World Serpentarium near St. Early in Haast's career, he slogged the wilds of the Everglades collecting cottonmouths and rattlers. 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. In 1946 Haast decided he had enough money saved to start his snake farm. Drivers passing the former site of. In 1964, a book was written about him. It was 2006 and he was still extolling the virtues of venom, saying he injected himself weekly with a cocktail from five snakes cobras, cottonmouths, kraits, mambas and rattlers homeopathy the Food and Drug Administration would never endorse. That was in 1971 and I kept that car until 3 years ago when I sold it for 35000.00 in pieces. David Mark Wasson was apparently sitting on top of the wall around the pit, dangling his feet during an inter mission between shows when he lost his balance, the authorities said. The event left Haast shaken and the next day, he shot the 1800-pound crocodile nine times. Creator Of Miami Serpentarium Dies At 100 - CBS Miami - CBS News ''I knew it was over then.'' One day I noticed his handshis fingersthey were deformend, mangled, sort of like a something from an old horror moviea result--one of many, of having been bitten by so many venomous snakesI think his own blood was an anti-venom, as a result of being bitten so much, I think he used to distribute this "antivenom (his blood)worldwide to snakebite vicims. Crocodile Kills 11-Year-Old Boy Swimming In River, Reptile Killed In an enclosure) his parents should have supervised him much better. "And in the end the research could take care of itself.". The boy's father and another man, Nicolas Caulineau, jumped into the pit and straddled the crocodile. He would tell us stories about going to Boy Scout Camp with this extraordinary man, Bill Hasst. AN eight-year-old boy has been mauled to death by a crocodile just metres from his family home in Malaysia. Bill Haast and a cobra at the Miami Serpentarium by Don Boyd Smocks. As a kid, it was a thrill to see the man himself up close. Unless otherwise noted under the right bottom of the photo, all images are copyrighted by Don Boyd, Bill Haast and the Miami Serpentarium - recent news articles, SW 128th Street and South Dixie Highway, Dade County, Memories of Old Hialeah, Old Miami and Old South Florida Photo Galleries - largest non-Facebook collection on the internet, Miami Area Tourist and Local ATTRACTIONS Historical Photos Gallery - All Years - click on image to view. Sometimes a snake would upstage Haast, biting him in front of spectators. Everyone sold them to the Serpentarium for $1.25/Ft, good money in those days. It's a shame good things must always come to an end, isn't it? Don Julio told the Mail Online: "The hardest thing for my wife was seeing the crocodile float with my son's body.". the shows were fantastic , there was so much to explore everything was clean and the whole haast family were always charming.my family became amateur experts on exotic snakes and have read and watched everything we could over the years.but nothing ever compared to mr. haast. I told my mother how I'd really like to get an Indigo and she kind of shrugged it off. Many times Haast donated his blood to be used in treating snake-bite victims when a suitable anti-venom was not available. ABOUT 1975 OR SO, I TOOK MY FAMILY ON VACATION TO SEE ALL THE SIGHTS MIAMI HAD TO OFFER INSTEAD OF LEAVING TOWN AS WE ALWAYS DID. We gave Dr.Haast large Andaconda in 1965". I. Woww! I don't remember which one was the infamous "Cookie". Thank you Diana, and all the other folks who have posted, for posting your personal memories of Bill Haast and your insights that the general public would never know about if you hadn't written in. I am so glad to have found this site. He made special trips, bringing back such perilous species as cobras and saw-scaled vipers. By 1984, interest in such roadside attractions like the Serpentarium had waned. A Disney spokeswoman did not go into detail about the tragic incident but said the resort was devastated and was helping the family and authorities. The resorts beach pool is next to the lake and overlooks the Seven Seas Lagoon. Thanks Bill for the show and GOD bless. On September 3, 1977, a 6-year-old boy sitting atop the wall surrounding the Serpentarium's alligator and crocodile pit fell into the pit, and a 12-foot crocodile lunged ten feet and grabbed the boy. ''It was the best snake show there ever will be,'' said George Van Horn, a frequent visitor who now runs a similar attraction in Central Florida. Newsweek has contacted crocodile experts for comment. Haast eventually returned home, where his mother had leased a concession stand at a lakeside resort. "We can't be here, because we spend every time remembering how nice it was to have him here with us. My "fondest" memory: sitting on the side of the crock pit with my butt hanging over the edge, the wall wasn't but a couple feet tall, right? People were always getting bitten, but they are so small that they rarely killed anyone. Bill Haast - Wikipedia The original cobra was a metal structure that was twisted into oblivion by a rare tornado in the late 50's or early 60's. From The Miami Herald, August 3, 2006 FLASHBACK | THE MIAMI SERPENTARIUM 'Miami snakeman' is 95 and still injects himself with venom BY LUISA YANEZ lyanez@MiamiHerald.com IN PUNTA GORDA: Bill Hasst sold his Miami Serpentarium site in Pinecrest in 1984, and settled in southwest Florida. An estimated 1,000 people every year are killed in crocodile attacks, many more than by sharks. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, shoot and kill the 17-year-old gorilla named Harambe, Explosive end to case thats rocked America. It was an incredible place. Across the street, a Haast lived in a nice house. It was a rattle snake. Serpentarium was snake place in Miami | Miami Herald Hi, my uncle Ted Kundtz just passed away a few months ago and he told me that he had helped out Mr. Haast when he was younger. But the reptile managed to crawl away into a moat in the 50foot square pit, dragging the child with him. The last snake I had was a 12' burmese python that I owned a few years ago. His take on the matter was generally to the effect that the placement of this variant of the common black racer into a separate subspecies status seemed dubious. Boy, 8, mauled to death by crocodile in front of horrified parents after being dragged underwater as he played. Originally, the shots immunized Haast against snake bites, an occupational hazard. He received his first cobra bite less than a year after he started his immunization program. Authorities contacted the boys family to express their condolences, Sheriff Demings said, adding there is no question we will lose a two-year-old child. His body will now be turned over to Orange County officers for an autopsy. What a rush. Later that day, boy did he get back at the girl that had done this. Most of the family agreed it was better than any other stops we made, including the newly opened Disney World. "We know that there are crocodiles and burrows, but we don't have a notion or a pattern to work on.". We entered the Serpentarium and a fellow (Haas) walked out of the back office to greet the tourists and said" he's dead" referring to John F. Kennedy, President of the USA. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. At 19, he got a job with a roadside snake attraction. By the mid-1960s he was putting on five shows a day, dressed in a white lab coat, extracting venom to sell for scientific experimentation. In the summer of 1972 I was bitten by a pygmy rattle snake in the middle of a subdivision in south Miami. He said his last snakebite, Number 173 suffered in 2003 -- courtesy of a Malaysian pit viper -- was the final blow to his hands, already mangled from years of enduring the nerve- and tissue-destroying poison that snakes spew when biting. Boy, 8, killed by crocodile while swimming in front of devastated dad Adrian Zorzut; Published: 14:52, 10 Nov 2022; Updated: 16:08, 10 Nov 2022; I remember one time that one got the better of him and bit him in the neck. I remember a Coral snake bit and killed a man digging in his yard in Whispering Pines in 1965. In the first chapter a bunch of young boys are headed to a swimming hole; one boy races ahead and dives in.