A LOCAL man has rejected claims he acted irresponsibly by filming himself standing still as a snake slithers between his legs.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Jono Roberts posted the 10 second video on Facebook which went viral, being watched over 500,000 times and picked up by news sites across Australia, America and the United Kingdom.
In the footage, the spotted black snake passes through Mr Roberts’ legs and then hooks around and bites his rubber thong, not his ankle, as many media reports suggested.
Despite following age-old advice to stand still when a snake approaches, Mr Roberts’ has received a lot of flak from the video with people labelling him as “an idiot” and even threatening him online.
He said he believes he did nothing wrong and was in fact attempting to rescue the snake from the road.
“I’ve got a lot of negative feedback over the film, with people saying I was just being an idiot,” he said.
“I don’t understand. I didn’t kill it, I’ve never killed a snake in my life.
“It was on the road and a lot of people go out of their way to hit them so I got out and picked it up and took it off the road.”
It was after Mr Roberts’ rescue efforts that the snake returned to make its film debut.
Mr Roberts’ said he never expected the video would attract so much attention.
“I just put it on Facebook for my mates to look at and all of a sudden people started sharing it and within a few hours it had 5000 views,” he said.
The video has now been shared over 8000 times and appeared on channel 7’s Sunrise, Prime news in Melbourne and on many other media websites.
Mr Roberts’ has even received offers from organisations in America and the United Kingdom to buy the license to the footage.
While the self professed “snake lover” keeps 11 snakes at his home, and is soon to complete a venomous snake handling license, he said he would be more cautious with an agitated snake in the future.
“I probably won’t just stand in front of it next time,” he said.
“I’ll still remove it from the road but might take a bit more caution next time."
However Mr Roberts said he still agrees that remaining still around snakes is sound advice.
"I agree 100 per cent with standing still under the right circumstances,” he said.
On Facebook yesterday, Mr Roberts posted yet another video of a different snake passing through his legs.
In this footage, the snake slithers by Mr Roberts, unperturbed by his presence.
Alongside the Facebook post, Mr Roberts restates his opinion that standing still around snakes is the safest option.
"I agree with standing still when in very close proximity of a venomous snake 99 per cent of the time," he wrote on Facebook.
"The last video just so happened to be in that one per cent.
"Stand still under the right circumstances."
