Snake Influencer Bitten After Bragging ‘Anti Venom Is for Pussies’

For Taylor Swift, karma’s a cat purring on her lap. But for one South Carolina man, karma takes a different form—a poisonous snake biting his hand.

Jeffrey Leibowitz, a snake influencer who runs Venomous Snakes Classified, a Facebook group with nearly 50,000 members, once wrote that “anti venom is for pussies.” 

In a January post, he blasted people who “trip the fuck out” when handling a venomous snake, which leads to their person’s and to “their pussy families” blaming groups like his.

Leibowitz’s tune changed on September 6 when he took to his Facebook group to seek anti-venom for an inland taipan, a snake he had acquired the previous month.

In an earlier video, Leibowitz had noted that the snake, whose single bite has enough venom to kill 100 grown men, according to the Australia Zoo, can “tweak out” easily.

Then, on September 5, Leibowitz shared another video with the reptile, this one of him handling the snake over a container of water.

“If you have them high up enough, you can control them. See how he’s trying to get me? But I’m turning him… He wants to turn, but he can’t,” Leibowitz said in the clip, which he posted to his 15,000 Instagram followers. 

“You’re in total control. There’s no need to be so scared of them if you just know their limitations and you use them.”

Well, the snake bit him, if you can believe this absolutely shocking and in no way predictable turn of events. A few hours later, Leibowitz was seeking anti-venom.

WBTW, a local news outlet, obtained the police report documenting what happened after Leibowitz’s bite. Police officers found 14 venomous snakes in Leibowitz’s home, which they deemed to have “substandard living conditions,” according to the outlet.

Leibowitz was given the anti-venom he needed, his father told police. But he remained hospitalized as a result of his bites, WBTW reported. The outlet additionally said that Leibowitz’s father gave police permission to euthanize the snakes after attempts to rehome them to a zoo or sanctuary were unsuccessful.

In a Friday Instagram post, Leibowitz shared a video from his hospital bed. 

In the clip, he told the camera, “You know that guy who got bit by the most venomous snake in the world? There’s something I didn’t tell you. There’s something no one knows. You might be interested in this. I got that bitch on video.”

To Leibowitz’s credit, he’s still got it.