Who is to blame when a venomous snake bites?

News reporters like to make much ado about a venomous snake bite, be it a native or exotic species, but Janaki Lenin has her own take. Of course she also shares it with her husband Rom Whitaker of the Madras Croc Bank. From The Hindu:

If a snake catcher gets bitten by a venomous snake, it is his own fault. He was careless, most probably trying to show off, and wasn't paying attention. That was the motto of Rom and his snake-hunting buddies in the U.S. during the 1960s, and it still holds to this day. In keeping with that philosophy, anyone who got bit was teased mercilessly. (Non-snake hunting civilians bitten accidentally were exempt, of course.) There is no doubt that this tradition of peer-admonition has kept these men, most of them, alive to this day. In India, however, numerous snake-catchers, invariably young men, brag about their various snakebite “exploits”. One bright spark bagged a cobra in a flimsy translucent bag. When he moved in closer to knot it, the snake nailed him on the hand through the cloth. He was in hospital for a few days, and in the Indian tradition, the entire neighbourhood visited him to express their concern. Basking in all this attention, our man never once paused to think why the incident had occurred. When he bragged about it numerous times, Rom asked him: “Whose fault was it?” The young man didn't seem sure, but it was certainly not his fault, he declared. Rom countered: “If you had used a proper bag to begin with you wouldn't have been bit, right? So tell me now whose fault was it?” The reply was silence.

The blame lies with the keeper. In this day and age, however. one careless keeper can spark problems for 100 good keepers. Please be careful; I agree with Janaki that we do not need more Darwin Award winners.