I could see their fears fade as they got the nerve to touch a real snake and realize that is wasn't slimy. A Malayan pit viper mangled an index finger. He later received commendations from President Gerald Ford and Miami Mayor Stephen Clark. ''I would hide them in my tool box,'' he said. He introduced himself as Col. Spencer, I introduced myself as "I'm Mark and could my brother Dick come too?" Haast and his teenage son, Bill Jr., began constructing snake pits, the beginning of the Serpentarium. Haast added a snake exhibit to the business. Sadly, Haast shut down his Miami Serpentarium after a young guest was killed by one of his crocodiles. Thanks for the wonderful memories and great work you have done. A rare survivor, he declared himself doing "very well, anxious to get back to work.". So, on a trip to visit my parents in Miami, when Scot was two (1977), we took him to the Miami Serpentarium. As a kid, it was a thrill to see the man himself up close. Apparently the damaged tail had to be amputated afterwards. In 1978, one of my first acts as a new husband on my honeymoon was to bring my new bride to the Serp (30 years later and she hasn't forgotten that one) so she could witness what I'd described so many times. Mr. Haast closed the serpentarium in 1984 after a 6-year-old boy fell into his crocodile pit and was fatally mauled. Turns out that I was talking to Bill Hast. 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. ''From the first day I walked into the Miami Serpentarium, I knew that was for me,'' he said. That gave him a chance to use his toolbox to smuggle snakes, including his first cobra. In 1982 when I was twelve I moved from England to Hollywood, Fl with my family. People were lining up for a show. Copyright 2023 Local10.com is published by WPLG INC., a Berkshire Hathaway company. Haast eventually returned home, where his mother had leased a concession stand at a lakeside resort. The statement was redacted from the publicly-released report. I can still recall watching a 12 or 14 ft gator, said to have been the largest but for its missing tail. Two men came to our house, & they had a hook on the end of a pole, & a cloth bag, & they soon had the brightly colored but deadly snake in tow. During World War II, he was aboard flights that delivered food and medicine to Africa and Asia. I will forever carry fond memories of "Doc" and how he turned my life around. Sometimes, you feel useless. Although Haast did not have antivenin for that snake, he knew a collector who did and who provided the 15 vials of antivenin that saved the victim's life. As time went on, I read about Bill now and then, such as when he was bitten by the Gaboon viper in the 1970s, and a few other dangerous ones. He made special trips, bringing back such perilous species as cobras and saw-scaled vipers. Cloud. sailing lessons beaufort, nc . According to the report, Cox fled the scene but later responded to the Miami-Dade Police Departments Homicide Bureau where he provided a video-recorded statement. ``I feel like a man in his 60s.'' "Miami was in Bill's heart to the end," his widow said. The findings were very encouraging, Haast said. The medical examiner . Through his pioneering efforts and unswerving dedication to the idea that venoms could be used to help relieve human suffering, he has singularly done more to advance the use of venoms in science and medicine than any other person in history by pioneering the concept of bringing snakes from around the world, housing them under strict laboratory conditions, and making their venoms available to the scientific community in a standardized and reliable form for over 60 years. The attraction had a gift shop, 400-pound turtles and a 20-foot python. Haast physically extracted venom from venomous snakes by holding them by the head and forcing them to bite a rubber membrane covering a vial. He had done research for a polio vaccine and sought a cure for multiple sclerosis. His dream of creating a snake sanctuary grew nearer. More animals than anyone I ever knew, and of every variety. Miami-Dade police are investigating after a 16-year-old boy was fatally shot late Tuesday night at an apartment complex. Now if I can find out more about The Colonel? not on the animals, or even the people walking around. In 1980 we took my late husband who had ALS (Lou Gerhig's Disease) to the Miama Clinic where. My Dad would take me there often, we lived in South Miami (as I do againlong story). CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed material for this report), First published on June 18, 2011 / 3:12 PM. Wow the good old days and funny thing is my name is Cookie!!! The latest local, regional and national news events of the morning are presented by the Local 10 News Team along with updated sports, weather and traffic. I grew up living close to the Haast's in the 60's. Haast retained custody of their son, Bill Jr. and continued to work as a mechanic for Pan Am while he built the Serpentarium. Drivers passing the former site of the Miami Serpentarium on South Dixie Highway. The snake attraction soon failed during the Depression, so Mr. Haast went to work for a bootlegger in the Everglades, where he was pleased to find plenty of snakes. I wish I could have taken my girls there! Haast's second wife, Clarita, simply narrated, setting the mood for the audience. Dr. Ben Sheppard mentioned in the article helped me with my drug addiction in 1974. i grew -up in south fla. in the sixties through the eighties,reading about bill haast brought back so many great memories.it was a huge treat when my mom and dad would pile all five of us kids in our station wagon a few times a year and spend the day at the miami serpentarium. I read the part of this article where Mr. Haas had to shoot an allegator because a boy fell into the pit and the alligator ate him (is'nt that what allegators do eat anything including yu?) Bill Haast cause of death is covered in this article. As he announced at the time, Bill killed the croc because he did not want her to become the inevitable freak show instead of a crocodile.Neither revenge nor stress induced fuzzy thinking was involved. The gentle smile said yes as I ran in the house saying " He' a Colonel Dick a real live Colonel!!!" It had been bit my Cookie while trying to stop Cookie from getting out on US1.Also their pet lion jumped across the roof of the Shelby and the chain scratched the roof. Good memories of a time long ago. Police in northwest Miami-Dade County investigate after a teenager was shot and killed. The boy's father and uncle jumped into the ?it and tried to pry open the crocodile's mouth. I got excited thinking it was a new toy. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. God bless Mr. Haas, and all the good he has done, on top of the lives he has saved through his bravery and research. Haast extracted venom 70 to 100 times a day from some 60 species of venomous snakes, usually in front of an audience of paying customers. His hands are gnarled and deadened, some fingers hang immobile, some look stunted in growth, and a pinky and index finger have been amputated at the knuckle, photographs taken by his wife reveal. 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 middle and dragged him to his death in a small lagoon. However, sometime in my teens I developed a real fear of snakes, somewhat unusual since there were no poisonous varieties in my area. We also used to go to his show at the Serpentarium, and it fascinated my brother. Cookie broke free and took the boy underwater. I was fascinated watching them put Mr Haast's feeding tube down and feed the snake. Copyright 2023 Local10.com is published by WPLG INC., a Berkshire Hathaway company. He had so much venom in him that we were told even a bee sting could kill him. Mr. Haasts story was good enough in its day to land him in Walter Winchells syndicated column, on The Tonight Show and, hardly surprising, in Ripleys Believe It or Not attractions. Pinterest. Friday, his wife, Nancy, put his lifetime tally at 172. His first wife, Ann, divorced him over his snake obsession. 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? Miami's independent source of He also left three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Haast remained director of Miami Serpentarium Laboratories near Punta Gorda until his death. Bill is a true forward thinker and an inspiration to all herpetologists. Inside, the snake shows were pure drama with no frills, no fanfare, no drum roll, no silence please, no ladies and gentleman. He was 100 years old. But Haast had detractors. I contacted him while the car was in shop and $2200.00 later it was mine. My dad and I still talk about this over 40 years later! A secret of his success was the immunity he had built up by injecting himself every day for more than 60 years with a mix of venoms from 32 snake species. He was a local celebrity known for something really worthwhile (unlike so many celebrities nowadays). I'm 5'2 from s city in north Jersey myself, and the snake was about my size! Copyright 2023 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved. I was probably the first Bill Haast copycat and started self-immunizing with various snake venoms over here in London since the age of twenty. RIP kind soul. other sizes: small original auto previous | next Unless otherwise noted under the right bottom of the photo, all images are copyrighted by Don Boyd comment | share We ran it over, and with a little coaxing, I convinced the driver to return. Besides his wife, the former Nancy Harrell, he is survived by two daughters, three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Shame on Hass and the parents this poor animal was slaughtered. Inside, the snake shows were pure drama with no frills, no fanfare, no drum roll, no silence please, no ladies and gentleman. I will enjoy looking over this site over time. Like for so many others, the Serpentarium was a place of wonder for me in my youth. America is still arguing today about whether the Cincinnati Zoo should have shot and killed Harambe, a 17-year-old male, Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida The experiments gave encouraging results, but were still in preliminary clinical trials when the Salk polio vaccine was released in 1955. Besides the mayor's key, they gave him a firefighter's helmet bearing the unit's name: Venom 1. I still have his autograph and some great snapshots of that meet & greet. While he was extracting venom from a small cobra, he was struck on the thumb and calmly told his wife that he was going to lie down for awhile. I remember him as a very genuine, nice man. Haast's hands suffered venom-caused tissue damage, culminating in the loss of a finger following a bite from a Malayan pit viper in 2003. He would free the snakes on a table in front of him, then catch the snakes bare-handed, and force them to eject their venom into glass vials with a rubber membrane stretched across the top. MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. - The person who shot and killed a 15-year-old boy is on the run. 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. This tornado also picked up a dredge crane, working on one of the drainage canals, and placed it across the canal without any significant damage. Haast caught his first snake at 7; his first serious bite was at 12. Furthermore, you shouldn't speak about how a parent should have kept a better eye on their dead son. Knowing me from my letters, he seemed genuinely interested in the details I told him about my own small collection. Living In Ms. we had plenty of cotton mouths copperheads and assorted others. 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. Anyone can read what you share. 1. canticle of zechariah explained. No matter where we went, Miami was Bill's real home. He bought a plot of land facing U.S. 1, south of Miami, then sold his house and started construction on the Serpentarium. Haast. The Miami Serpentarium, established in1946 as the first-of-it's kind premier and pioneering venom production laboratory in the world, was originated by the Founding Director, W. E. Inside the bag was a cardboard box with holes in it. Every year we took a field trip there, and every year I looked forward to it. I always told people I'd live past 100, and I still feel I will. 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. William "Bill" Haast, director of the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories (which he operated from 1947 to 1984) died June 15 at the age of 100. . I was 16 yrs.old and going outside at night with no shoes on and stepped on the snake in the dark. We had an iguana that was too large to keep. As people gathered close Bill unlatched the door on the end of the cage. Now 39, he is a member of the rescue department's anti-venin unit that rushes to inject those bitten by a poisonous snake. There was a croc that had lost its tail because it had bit at it after thinking it was another croc coming to steal its food. In an enclosure) his parents should have supervised him much better. The same year, a copperheads bite put him in the hospital for a week. As a joke on him, a staff member placed a rubber snake into one of the boxes that normally held a venomous snake for the show. Facebook. The event left Haast shaken and the next day, he shot the 1800-pound crocodile nine times. MIAMI (CBS4)- The man who mesmerized generations of paying customers from 1947 to 1984 by extracting venom at his Miami Serpentarium as a spine-tingling South Florida attraction is dead. Luckily though, I see from visiting one of the links that there is an attraction to view snake milking in St. I got my love of snakes (I'm a girl) growing up in Miami going repeatedly to the Serpentarium.