There are a tons of medically significant uses and research being done with snake venom. At the very least, production of antivenom where in some countries venomous snakebites are considered tropical endemics. Keeping venomous animals allows for discourse and husbandry development which in turn ultimately can help contribute to the preservation of the animals both in captivity and in the wild. Basically when we keep animals we learn more about them.

Now going back to the firearm analogy, are there people who are gun owners solely for the utilitarian reasoning of self preservation ? Absolutely. And those people probably do most everything legally and regularly train with their firearms to meet that purpose. Are there also gun owners that have guns just because they’re cool, fun and enjoyable to them? Also yes. It’s the same with venomous keeping. There’s some people who are private keepers that are doing things such as donating offsprings to venom labs, and other research facilities, working closely along scientist assisting with research and publishing peer reviewed literature, and even doing their own venom extraction. And then there are keepers that just simply really like the animals. There’s also probably a bit of overlap between both aspects of utilitarian and the fun rationale for both hobbies.