Dangerous Unconventional Pets

But any turtle is downright tame compared to what's around the corner.

Where Venomous Snakes Abound

"This is where we keep all of our venomous snakes," MacInnes explained as he opened the door to the snake house. The room normally remains locked, as required by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Every single snake in the room has the ability to kill humans, but that seems to be part of the attraction. The Coral Cobra sells for $400 and the New Guinea Taipan, considered one of the deadliest snakes in the world, goes for $600.

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Cassie Sare started volunteering at Glades Herp Farm in April 2007 and was recently hired to work with nonvenomous snakes. It's a far cry from the waffle house where she used to waitress.

"These are too small for me," she said as she handed me a strikingly beautiful Pueblan milk snake. "I like the real big snakes," she said.

There are bigger reptile farms, but Glades Herp boasts it sells more venomous snakes than any other. The Moroccan black cobras sell for $600, deadly venom included.

People have lots of different reasons for wanting to buy the snakes and other creatures, MacInnes explained. "We sell to zoos and aquariums, and [to] people for display. We sell to venom labs. We also sell to private collectors. You know, people keep these. I mean it's a totally different thing than having a fish tank. But in lot of ways it's the same.

"It's an animal that's beautiful. It's interesting to watch," MacInnes said. "People choose to do a lot of different things, you know, like ride a motorcycle or jump out of airplanes. Those are dangerous things. ... It's a calculated risk that you assume if you want to own one of these."

MacInnes also sells pythons that are 15 feet long and can fetch up to $5,000. Although pythons are not venomous, they can easily crush you to death.

Avoiding Life-Threatening Injuries

All the snake-related deaths MacInnes has heard about have involved individual snake owners.

"People who keep large snakes, if they make a mistake during feeding time, they can get killed by their snake," he said. But "nobody is going to order a 15-foot python that's never had a snake and doesn't know about snakes."