Snake catching can be an unpredictable and sometimes dangerous job. Glen Peacock would know. He has been crawling under people’s houses, peering behind their lounges and getting 3am call outs for around seven years. He wasn’t always a fan of snakes though. It’s not that he didn’t like them, he just thought as far as pets go, they were kind of boring. Twenty-five years into his reptile keeping hobby and Glen now works as a professional snake catcher, reptile breeder and sometimes counsellor to anxious customers throughout the Illawarra.
Growing up near creeks and parcels of bush around the Shellharbour area, Glen’s love of reptiles came naturally. He says, “As a kid, I was always chasing lizards in the backyard and frogs and all that sort of stuff.” But it was the local turtles that really captured his imagination, and he was especially fascinated with how prehistoric and dinosaur-like they seemed. “It wasn’t until about 1995 that I realised that you could get a permit to keep reptiles as pets, and it pretty much started there. It started with one turtle.” And that turtle, Biscuit, is still alive today.
The turtles lead to lizards and the lizards lead to snakes and Glen says, “It wasn’t until I got my first one or two [snakes] that you start seeing a different side of them as pets and my interest just grew and grew and one day I decided I was going to get into snake catching.”
Learning to catch venomous snakes in a controlled environment using captive-bred animals and with an expert by your side is one thing, but actually catching them in the wild with an often stressed snake is another thing entirely. Glen’s very first venomous snake catching job, with a red-bellied black snake, didn’t quite go as planned. “I actually dropped it! I was pretty nervous and it swung back around and I was under a house. I forgot all my training there for a split second. I dropped it and had to catch it again!”
Snake catching has become a bit of a family affair for Glen, his wife Pam and their four kids, which is lucky as depending on the species, snakes can be active both in the day and the night and don’t stop just because it’s the weekend. 14-year-old Nicola is particularly hands-on. “If it's the weekend she loves to come catching with me, I can’t go without her. I let her handle the harmless stuff, like golden crowns. Also can't release snakes without her or I get in trouble,” he laughs.
His wife, Pam, officially joined the team this year after getting her venomous snake handling licence. Now, this might seem par for the course for this family but Pam used to suffer from ophidiophobia, an extreme fear of snakes. It was so bad that in high school she wasn’t allowed to go to zoos, as she’d inevitably faint near the reptile exhibits. Regular exposure to Glen’s pet snakes and watching him in action has helped to alleviate her fear. “When I started snake catching, she came with me and started seeing that they’re not out to bite you and they’re not as dangerous as people think. And the fear went away when she saw me handling them… And if I counted now, she’s probably got more pet snakes than I do.”
Glen’s advice if you find a snake is to firstly not panic, and to bring your pets and kids inside. Most snakes are simply moving through your yard and will be gone in a few hours. He says that, “85-90% of snake bites happen when people are trying to harm a snake”. So, leave the snake alone and call the experts. You might just get to see Glen, Pam or Nicola in action.
If you find a snake or lizard on your property anywhere in the Illawarra you can call Glen, Illawarra Snake Catcher 24/7 (and yes, he does receive calls at 1am!) on 0418 162 441.
Now that the weather is warming up, you can see lots of videos of Glen and Pam in action on their Illawarra Snake Catcher Facebook page.
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