a native of miami, florida, george van horn has maintained a lifelong interest in herpetology. according to a first-person account published in "orlando magazine" in 2011 at the age of 67, when he was six years old he met bill haast who was the owner of the miami serpentarium and became his mentor, and the first snake he ever picked up was a rattlesnake which struck at him but hit his fingernail without penetrating the skin. he then started milking a cottonmouth in his grandmother's basement and began filling a handmade vial of venom from it. van horn said in 2011 that had been bitten at least 12 times by venomous snakes. he opened up the reptile world serpentarium in st. cloud in 1972. he received hospital treatment for king cobra bites in 1977 and again in 1995, and said he brings his own vial of venom to the hospital in such instances.