Silke Jasso
37-year-old Tim Friede of Wisconsin has been letting the world’s most dangerous snakes bite him for 16 years and he says only death or the development of a vaccine will stop him from doing so.
Videos by Rare
Friede has been bitten more than 160 times and nearly died on a few occasions. Friede’s commitment to his amateur experimentation with deadly venom resulted in a divorce from his wife.
Barcroft TV looked into Friede’s story and it is in no way the norm. In Barcroft’s video, Friede takes back-to-back bites from a black mamba and a taipan, one bite for each arm, and survives.
Friede has a mojave rattlesnake, a PNG taipan, a black mamba, diamondback rattlesnake and water cobras in his home.
“I will not stop doing this until the vaccine is in the field or I die,” Friede said. “My arms were killing me after the bites, there is a real throbbing sensation but I felt great.”
“I don’t think there are many people who could take those bites singular – let alone back-to-back,” he added.
His ex-wife Beth Friede, 35, said “he has a love affair with his animals.”
“Me and the kids never came in first, sometimes not even second. The snakes were always first,” she said. “I would say to him that he has a love affair with his animals.”
“I was always worried about Tim but I would never ask him to stop injecting himself with venom as he was doing important work,” she continued. “I was always scared of them so it was terrifying living with them for nearly 20 years – by the end of it I’d just had enough.”
The Friedes have two sons, one 18 and the other 11.
What do you make Tim Friede’s life work?
(H/t Daily Mail)
