"I had harmless snakes for about three years until I started collecting venomous ones."
|||Durban North - When most 13-year-old boys were asking for remote controlled cars and video games, Jason Arnold was persuading his parents to allow him to keep a snake.
The 34-year-old from Durban North now has more than 700.
The self-taught herpetologist has come to be known to the public as the “snake man” because of his ability to capture them.
“When I was growing up, my best friend had about four snakes which he kept as pets - small harmless ones - and from the moment I saw them I was besotted,” he said. He admits he was nervous around them at first.
“For my 13th birthday a friend gave me a gift. In the wrapper was a matchbox and in it was a baby brown house snake,” he said.
Arnold said he knew his parents would not approve so, after school, he went to his father’s work to convince him it was harmless and to let him to keep it.
“My father had no problem with it. My mother needed some convincing because my brother had tried to get snakes before and she was against it, but she eventually warmed to the idea.”
Arnold then set out to find out more about the creatures.
“I became more intrigued after reading up on them. I saved all my money and bought a Red Lip Herald, which is mildly venomous. After that, bored with baby snakes, I got a night adder.
“I had harmless snakes for about three years until I started collecting venomous ones. My grades at school slipped because I was only interested in my snakes. I didn’t play any sport. It got so bad my parents threatened to get rid of my snakes if my marks didn’t improve,” he said.
Arnold then started working part-time at the Snake Park at North Beach where he fed the snakes, cleaned their cages and did demonstrations for the public. After he matriculated, he worked at the park full-time.
There he honed his snake capturing skills.
“We used to get a lot of calls from the public about snakes they found in their houses or gardens and needed removed. So I decided to get into this. Instead of having people kill a snake, they could call me to remove it,” he said.
Arnold said that over 20 years he had caught snakes in some “weird” places.
“I was once called to collect a snake in a sewage pit, I have been called out to Sapref to remove snakes from their machinery. I get bitten at least once a week by garden snakes. The calls are unpredictable, I answer about 10 a day and I am especially busy September to November as many snakes mate in these months.”
If you find a snake in your house, he says, try to contain it in a room and call a catcher who knows snakes. Arnold can be reached at 082 745 6375. - Sunday Tribune