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Haast is very difficult to categorize. I can't find anything specific to put him in, other than generic cats such as by race, gender and nationality, which really don't add anything here. If you can think of a category that does fit, have at it. -- Donald Albury(Talk) 13:08, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
The story of Bill Haast is in desperate need of an update, so much more has happened since 1965: the decline of the Serpentarium's popularity and closing in 1984, the conflicts with the FDA on PROVEN, the move to Provo,Utah and the return to Florida, this time to Punta Gorda.
- The biography I used as a source was written in 1965. If you know of any reliable sources, then use them to add the information. I haven't had any lick finding much of anything about him on the Internet. -- Donald Albury 01:07, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
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- I think the article should also discuss the tragic death of a child who fell into a pit with the Serpentarium's crocodiles. As I recall, it was the African croc -- the one that had bitten off part of its tail -- that killed him. I would add this myself but I only know of it from reading a contemporaneous newspaper article and surely would get too many details wrong, and I certainly have no sources to cite. I can't even be sure of the date, though it must have been in the early or mid 1980s.
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- As I recall, the boy's father had set him on top of the wall surrounding the pit so he could see inside. The boy had started slapping the wall to get the crocs' attention, not realizing that this was the signal the keepers used to announce feeding time. When the crocs drew near and found no food, one looked up and either roared growled; this scared the boy so much that he lost his balance and fell in. The croc then grabbed him and held him underwater. Haast, his employees and several patrons jumped in and hit the croc about the head with aluminum baseball bats which Haast kept handy for such emergencies, hoping it would let go of the boy. The croc tolerated this for a surprisingly long time -- about 45 minutes, I believe -- before finally letting go of the body. (He was very large and his armor was thick enough to absorb the blows.) If I remember correctly, the croc was then returned to the wild in Africa instead of being destroyed.
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- This must have been shortly before the Serpentarium closed, which leads me to suspect that it was part of what led to the institution's demise. 4.232.225.11 07:07, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
