KRISTA: I'm never afraid of snakes, not even
a little bit. I'm crazy for snakes.
LAURA: I really don't like them at all. they,
they kinda freak me out.
COMM: Most nine year old girls enjoy playing
with dolls. But Kirsta Guarino from Michigan is one of a kind. She prefers snakes, and
lives with thirty of them.
JAMIE: It's just an anaconda, c'mon, it's
harmless.
KRISTA: Ow!
MAN: How do you feel?
KRISTA: Um...excited.
00:32 COMM: Krista gets her love of snakes from
dad Jamie, and held her first when she was just two years old.
00:38 JAMIE: It was her third word y'know snake,
she would always point and just say snake! And i just knew right then and there she was
gonna be, y'know this was gonna be her passion. I could just tell.
COMM: Since then she's developed a natural
talent for snake handling. Some are twice her size and known to bite.
COMM: But it hasn't put her off, even when
she was out hunting for rattlesnakes.
01:08 JAMIE: Oh it's a rattle!
KRISTA: Oh cool! JAMIE: All right we're gonna release them
far away from people.
JAMIE: He loves you.
COMM: Mum Ashli isn't a big fan of snakes.
JAMIE: Hold him! C'mon!
ASHLI: No! You guys do what you want but I
think you're crazy.
COMM: And grandmother Laura isn't happy with
Krista's hobby.
LAURA: It bothers me a lot, to me I'm afraid
she's going to get bit, hurt, who knows strangled. It really upsets me, a lot.
JAMIE: I've had some specific negative comments
towards Krista and snakes, y'know "You shouldn't let your daughter be around those evil serpents,
she could get killed and strangled" and y'know some ridiculous comments and I just have to
come back with y'know you're not educated at all, she's never put in danger so y'know
I kinda get mad but I laugh at them.
COMM: Today Krista dedicates most of her free
time to her favourite animal.
JAMIE: You ready to feed all these?
Krista: Yep.
COMM: And she even helps out at the reptile
centre where Jamie works.
JAMIE: Hey Krista how's it going over here?
KRISTA: I only got one more left.
JAMIE: One left? All right feed them up because it's time to feed some alligators.
KRISTA: Cool.
BRIGAN: Even though Krista is very young I
think she probably knows more about snakes than I do. Her knowledge is insane, she's
so smart.
COMM: Despite her young years Krista already
has her future planned out as the owner of a reptile zoo.
KRISTA: I wanna teach people about reptiles,
I wanna have every kind of reptile in the world.
COMM: And she's determined to prove that snakes
aren't as bas as we think.
KRISTA: Some people, they're afraid of them
and they like kill 'em, and I don't want no-one to kill snakes because they're cool and interesting.