UPDATED @ 3:00pm, June 17, 2011: Mr. Haast died on June 15, 2011. I've added the few details that I know on my main blog, Random Pixels. I'll add more there as I learn more.
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| from the Miami News, Aug. 23, 1964 |
Ten years ago, Miami herpetologist Joe Wasilewski was working with a documentary film crew on a piece about 90 year-old Bill Haast, the legendary former owner of Miami Serpentarium.
Ten years later Bill Haast is alive and well and living in Punta Gorda, FL where he runs Miami Serpentarium Laboratories.
Bill Haast turned 100 on Dec.30 2010.
In Aug. 2006, when Haast was 95, Miami Herald reporter Luisa Yanez wrote that the "Miami Snakeman" was still injecting himself with snake venom. Yanez quoted Haast as saying: ''I could become a poster boy for the benefits of venom. If I live to be 100 I'll really make the point.''
Over the years, Miami newspapers have chronicled Haast's frequent brushes with death.
In Feb. 1949, the Miami Daily News reported that Haast, then 38, had been bitten by a Mexican water moccasin.
In Feb. 1961, after Haast was bitten for the 67th time, he told the Miami News: "Let's hope it was the last."
It wasn't.
In Sept. 1970, Haast was bitten - number 112 - by a Malayan pit viper.
Happy birthday Mr. Haast!