Coral snake bites are really rare and yes, usually it's a person who is handling or trying to kill the snake while very near. I heard that a Texas agency is working on getting clearance to bring coral snake antivenin into the U.S. from Mexico, since none has been produced in this country, I think since about the year 2000. They have to prove that it is effective on U.S. coral snake venom and then get approval from the U.S. government to import it...very difficult to do that. The reason it's no longer manufactured in this country is pure and simple...money. A company would lose a lot of money by making it, since there are only maybe 10 coral snake bites a year at most in the U.S. In the last 40 or so years, only one very drunken man died in the U.S. from a coral snake bite, In 2006...he and a friend were trying to kill the snake (I wondered when I read that...what were they using to try to kill it with, their hands?). The friend was bitten also, but survived.
