Four specifications.
Written engagements only.

Identification, capture, and translocation of native and non-native snakes found on client premises. Work is performed under state-issued nuisance wildlife authority where applicable, and under institutional collection permits for private zoological clients.

Scope of work

• Visual identification to species, with molecular confirmation where keying is ambiguous (rear-fanged colubrids, juvenile viperids, melanistic Crotalus oreganus intergrades).
• Hook-and-tube or tong capture, appropriate to species and situation. We default to a 42-inch recurved hook on open ground and a clear acrylic restraint tube (Midwest-pattern, 1¼-in ID for adult C. atrox) in structure-assist captures. No snare use except in structural entrapment cases.
• Transport in DOT-compliant double-containment — inner bag of heavy cotton, outer Class-II latching bin — to a pre-arranged release site or receiving facility.
• Incident report with photo documentation, GPS point, burrow sketch, and recommendations for habitat modification (rodent exclusion, riprap gap closure, threshold sweep reseating).

Not included

Euthanasia is not offered as a first-line service. Where a specimen cannot be safely released or rehomed — most commonly long-term captive non-natives with suspected respiratory pathology — referral is made to a cooperating veterinary partner for clinical assessment.

Release siting

Native crotalids are released within 1 km of capture wherever site ecology supports it, consistent with current telemetry literature on translocation-induced mortality. Long-distance translocation is considered an intervention of last resort and is documented as such.

Primary and secondary containment design for restricted species. We are retained either at the architectural phase of a new facility or as a post-incident corrective audit after a documented escape or near-miss.

Typical deliverables

• Enclosure drawings with lock class, gasket specification (closed-cell EPDM, Shore A 60 ±5), and glass-to-frame tolerance at or below 1.5 mm on all four edges, verified with a feeler gauge at commissioning.
• Airflow and thermal gradient modeling with validation probes across a 72-hour commissioning window, logged at 30-second resolution and delivered as CSV alongside the narrative report.
• Keeper workflow diagrams: shift protocol, tool staging (hook left of door, tube right, bite kit at shoulder height outside the room), two-person rule enforcement, and dead-man alarm integration at ninety-second interval.
• Substrate and furniture recommendations calibrated to species ethogram, with citations to current literature — cypress mulch for Bitis, sphagnum-over-coco for arboreal Trimeresurus, dry aspen for Crotalus.

Governing references

Designs are reviewed against AZA accreditation standards for venomous collections, ASIH field guidelines, and applicable state dangerous-wild-animal statutes. Where a client's jurisdiction is silent, we default to the stricter of the two neighboring jurisdictions.

What we will not sign off on

Screen-topped cages for any front-fanged species. Sliding glass on any elapid enclosure. Shared airspace between venomous and non-venomous collections. Single-door anterooms for hot rooms of more than six enclosures.

A site-specific bite response document is the single most cost-effective risk control a venomous collection can hold. We draft, maintain, and rehearse it.

Document components

• Species-by-species bite signature summaries, written for the attending emergency physician rather than the herpetologist — hemotoxic versus neurotoxic progression, expected coagulopathy, airway timelines for kraits and mambas.
• Regional antivenom inventory map, including cooperating university and zoological holdings, refresh dates, and transit logistics (ground couriers with documented cold-chain; helo-lift triggers for mamba and taipan envenomations where the receiving hospital is more than forty minutes by ground).
• Staff action checklist for the first twelve minutes, laminated and posted at each enclosure bank. The checklist is deliberately short — seven lines — because anything longer will not be read under stress.
• Rehearsal schedule, including unannounced drills quarterly and full tabletop exercises annually with the receiving hospital's charge nurse present.

Coordination

All protocols are co-signed by the client's medical director or a consulting toxinologist. Snakecharmer does not practice medicine and does not administer antivenom. We build the system the clinicians will use.

Testimony, written opinion, and report review in civil and regulatory matters concerning reptile husbandry, private keeper liability, wildlife import compliance, and premises-liability claims involving free-ranging snakes.

Case types accepted

• Standard-of-care disputes in zoological, educational, or filmed-media contexts.
• Escape and envenomation incidents in private collections.
• Administrative matters under the Lacey Act and state injurious-species statutes.

Case types declined

We do not accept retention on either side of matters concerning roadside attractions, religious handling practices, or the commercial breeding of hybrid venomous stock. Conflict screening is run against a standing client list prior to acceptance.

Working method

Retention begins with a document review. We form an opinion, or we decline. We do not shape an opinion to a retaining party's theory of the case, and we disclose this in writing at the outset. The practice has withdrawn from three matters in the past six years on this basis.