Raised up, hood spread, looking ready to strike, the albino monocled cobra hissed as Terry Phillip coaxed it with his snake hook. The cream-colored cobra is just one of many venomous animals Phillip handles as the reptile curator at Reptile Gardens in Rapid City.

“The really nasty venomous snakes are what we specialize in,” Phillip said.

Phillip averages about 800 to 1,000 interactions with venomous animals every week when he cleans cages and feeds them. But, in his 13 years with the business, he has only been bitten once.

In Oct. 2006, a rattlesnake, native to the United States, bit him while he was readying it for transport. Phillip said it was his fault, not the snake’s.

“Accidents don’t happen, mistakes do,” Phillip said. “The animal just does what comes natural. Mistakes happen; we just have to use our heads and eliminate as many variables as possible.”

Last week, when a SeaWorld trainer was killed by a whale during a performance in Orlando, Fla., national attention was focused on the risks of working with dangerous animals. Dawn Brancheau died after a 22-foot, 12,000-pound orca grabbed her ponytail and pulled her into the water. She died from drowning and traumatic injuries.

Reptile Gardens spends about $50,000 every two years on anti-venom. Even though the anti-venom hasn’t been used, it must be replaced because it has a two-year expiration date.

When Phillip was bit by a rattlesnake, the hospital had the appropriate anti-venom to treat it because rattlesnake bites are common enough in the United States. However, hospitals do not have the anti-venom to treat bites by the wide variety of venomous animals housed at Reptile Gardens, Phillip said.

Each year Reptile Gardens averages only about two minor alligator bites during the summer performances. The business hires college-aged employees to put on alligator and snakes shows for the park’s visitors. Phillip said the performers are employees who have worked in other parts of the park like the gift store or café. He said Reptile Gardens ensures that the show performers have the right personalities to handle the animals so they don’t take unnecessary risks and follow safe practices.

Phillip said the people who think the animals need to be removed from captivity are only thinking with their hearts.

“The whole idea is about conservation. It’s our responsibility to best protect the animals in the environments that are left,” Phillip said.

Contact Holly Meyer at 394-8421 or holly.meyer@rapidcityjournal.com.