A snake for the "specialist" keeper (?)

A river dwelling native of South America's rain forests, the gren anaconda must be among the most notorious of the world's reptiles.
I do not keep green anacondas. I have spoken with people who have kept them, and from what I can determine, they are generally rather dangerous snakes. Dangerous because they are usually either very nervous and tend to strike out in fear, or very bad tempered and tend to strike out in anger. Either way, because they are so big, (over 3 metres for an adult, and double the thickness of a comparable length python) they hurt when they bite. Larger ones are quite capable of constricting and eating humans.
BUT
There is a lot of scaremongering about large anacondas. Most of it is a load of hype. Tales from the jungles about anacondas leaping out of trees and taking down helicopters cannot be taken seriously.   Reports of incredibly large anacondas never seem to be authenticated. Usually these monster snakes are little more than submerged logs. A telling fact is that there is no authenticated reports of an anaconda longer than 29 feet.	This photo (sorry about the poor quality) was from a South American newspaper showing a 30 foot long anaconda which had swallowed a man. The snake was actually 21 feet long and had swallowed a capybara
The photos show how large prey can be swallowed by the large snakes
I saw a program on UK television a while ago (October 1998) when a scientist in the jungle was picking up large wild anaconda (3 metres and bigger) with only one other assistant. The snakes didn't look too worried about being handled. There is also a school of thought among some snake keepers that captive bred green anacondas are manageable.
The main problem is that you need half a dozen mates to hold your pet while you clean his tank out	But I wouldn't like to mess about with a green anaconda. Are you thinking of getting one, or do you have green anacondas already ? I'd love to hear how you get on with him/her.

NOT a sensible pet - but I still want one !

Ben has a green anaconda, and he's been good enough to share his experiences in an email I've reproduced below:

Hello, My name is Ben, a Berkeley, California dweller, and reptile owner. I came across your sight, and would like to share with my green anaconda experience to date. I've had my green anaconda now for about 3 months -- a male that I bought at 3 months of age (so he's about 6 months old). He is captive bred, and has turned out to be very tame (after a little work). When I bought him, he was actually larger than my year and a half old rainbow boa (brazilian). The first few days where rather interesting. He was a bit skitish for the first few minutes of handling each time I got him out of the tank, and usually be me one or 2 times, but then after a bit of holding, settled right down. I have to admit, they have some hangs on them, especicailly compared to Pythons and boas. After about an hour-a-day handling for a month, he's become pretty docile, and the biting has subsided, unless provoked of course (which hasn't happened yet). He's a very good eater, and has grown quickly. He's currently about 4-5ft long and 4.5" inches in diameter, which is large even for an anaconda. Tank wise, it's about half water with a nice mossy basking spot. The cool side is kept around 80 or so, and the warm is 90 respectively. It's a very large 8wide/4deep/3tall tank, and he seems to be pretty happy there, and should be large enough to accomadate him to get as big as he wants. So far though, shy of the initial socializing, has been a very nice snake to own. No only is he very handsome, but rather unique. I'm looking forward (as perverse as it sounds) to the days of 18ft and eating whole chickens. I would have to say, if you can get past the socializing and some nasty bites at first, I would recommend them. Cheers, Ben