Reptile World Serpentarium is at 5705 E. Irlo Bronson Memorial Hwy (U.S. 192), St. Finding a job as a flight engineer with Pan American World Airways, he began traveling around the world. By 1965 the Serpentarium housed more than 500 snakes in 400 cages and three pits in the courtyard. More than twenty of those individuals recovered.[7]. He received the key to the city.Those same hands that for decades eased venom from the world's most poisonous snakes held the key to the city of Miami on Thursday. The man then went next door with his . The night of the accident, he took his Luger, walked out to the pit and shot Cookie in the head. This subspecies, restricted to the Florida Keys, obviously was named for Bill Haast. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza was firing a rifle in his yard late at night when his neighbors asked him to stop, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said. ''I miss the excitement of the Serpentarium,'' Haast said. Feature Vignette: Analytics. I am a big guy and I thought we could easily hold him still. The following year, he was bitten by a Timber Rattlesnake, and was said . Haast calls it one of the lowest points in his life. As a young Canadian boy back in the 1960`s. I cannot imagine what that family will be going through once they find out their 15-year-old wont be coming home, Rodriguez said. After the CBS News program 60 Minutes did a report on the subject in December 1979, interest in the serum surged. See, when a poisonous snake bites you, and his fangs (having hypodermic-like hollow holes at their points) inject their venom , they are in fact "digesting" you while you diethe venom is softening up your tissue, destroying it, making you easier to eat, digesthence Mr. Haas' fingers were so deformed? Yep, I was a snake kid, read all the books in my library, found "Cobras In His Garden" and was as surprised as my parents when Bill Haast wrote back to me a few times.