A BLOND pint-sized wrangler regularly grabs giant deadly snakes larger than her with her bare hand – and even takes some of them home as pets.
Taylor Stanberry, 27, has been saving the petrified residents of Florida and those farther afield from monster venomous snakes for nine years.
Fearless Taylor Stanberry regularly catches venomous snakes in Florida using her bare handsCredit: Kennedy Newsand Media
Taylor Stanberry met her husband, Rhett Stanberry, on a Facebook group for lovers of unusual reptiles eight years agoCredit: Kennedy Newsand Media
Taylor and Rhett now regularly catch snakes togetherCredit: Kennedy Newsand Media
The 27-year-old from Naples, Florida, poses with deadly snakes on her InstagramCredit: Kennedy Newsand Media
Shocking footage shows the four-foot 10-inch Stanberry calmly lifting the five-foot-long girthy cottonmouth pit viper – whose bites are venomous and potentially fatal – and posing for the camera.
The reptile lover stumbled across the pregnant beast while exploring Florida’s Everglades National Park late at night on August 17 with her husband, Rhett Stanberry.
After taking a few shots with the chilled snake, the mom-to-be was safely returned to the bush it emerged from.
Stanberry and her 34-year-old husband, who met eight years ago through a Facebook group for lovers of unusual reptiles, offer homes to 100 abandoned or maltreated animals, ranging from capuchin monkeys to gaboon vipers.
Stanberry, from Naples, Florida, told The U.S. Sun: “We were hiking out deep into the woods with no GPS and just our headlamps.
“There was this big snake in the middle of bushes, but we couldn’t work out what it was.
“When we got closer, we said, ‘Wait a minute, that’s a cottonmouth. That thing looks huge.’
“She was as thick as my arm, you could tell she was pregnant.
“I’m a pretty small girl, so I know my weaknesses with certain venomous snakes. I try to stay away from the really big ones.
“You could definitely lose some fingers with that size of snake as their venom glands are so big, but cottonmouth venom isn’t deadly as long as you get to a hospital soon enough.
“This snake was super-chill for her size. She never tried to bite or run, but she did poop in my face.
“I was excited and amazed to see a cottonmouth getting that big and healthy. We’ve seen a lot of sickly, dying ones in the last few years.”
Scared homeowners call Stanberry and her snake keeper husband daily, reporting slithery intruders, including deadly rattlesnakes and pythons.
The gutsy reptile expert doesn’t shy away from the giant beasts despite them regularly being inches longer than her.
Stanberry said: “I’ve never been bitten, but it’s always pretty scary when we’re hours away from the hospital, so I’m always on my toes.
“You always have to watch their personality. If they’re crazy and really scared, it’s not going to end well.”
The reptile-mad couple met online through their unusual hobby, and what started as fun snake-catching turned into romance.
She said: “He was posting a bunch of snakes he found in the wild in Florida, so I messaged him asking if we could hang out sometime and catch some snakes.
“When we met for the first time, we hung out for 12 hours straight and were inseparable ever since.”
Stanberry and Rhett document their unique day jobs on social media, caring for a range of exotic animals in their at-home zoo.
Despite the largely positive reaction online, Stanberry says some viewers brand her “an idiot” for not shooting the highly dangerous creatures.
Stanberry said: “I get so many bad comments I’ve just got to ignore it and laugh at those people.
“They’re actually nicer to me than my husband. They see so many more guys handling snakes, but when they see a 4ft 10 girl handling a big snake, they think that’s cool.”
Stanberry uploaded the clip to Instagram with the caption: “A truly impressive venomous cottonmouth we found in Florida.
“The video does not do this snake justice, she is 4.5-5ft and girthyyyyy! It’s always nice to see a healthy native snake when we are out in the Everglades.”
The post received more than 180,000 views and 561 comments, with many in disbelief at the giant snake’s size.
One viewer commented: “THAT’S THE BIGGEST COTTON I’VE SEEN EVEN ON VIDEO! How heavy? Looked like your arms and shoulders were working there!”
Another wrote: “That one has been eatin’ good!”
But some didn’t share the same admiration as the reptile lover, saying the dangerous beast should be shot.
One viewer wrote, “People need to start killing the snakes when they find them.
“Remember let one go and they have another litter of hundreds every year. Your child or pets could be their next meal.”
