A Bit of Reality About Owning Snakes and Raising a Family

[West Coast Jungle]

I love the perspective Jo, very true and entertaining.

Another interseting point is that many reptiles are being pointed out as a danger to native species and although this may be true in isolated incidents like the everglades, the common dog and cat pets probably kill and harm more native species(as well a people) than all exotic pets combined.

The big problem is uneducated and irresponsible reptile pet owners not the animals themselves.

As Jo and Burmmama have shown when kept correctly and secure there is no threat to anyone.

The recent tragic story is about an ignorant owner who foolishly housed a large snake without a secure enclosure. Lord only knows what else this animal was deprived of.

[retic720]

Nice article...but...

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Study group:

1 male age 39
1 female age 47
1 female age 21
1 male age 17
1 female age 15
1 male age 8

1 bite to the 59 year old male by 1 adult female boa - snake was in shed, bite was extremely minor far below the full ability of this snake to inflict bite damage

59 year old male? He's diff. from the 39yrold male right? typo? just curious

I should post this link to our local forums...and perhaps show this to my folks (they heard about the unfortunate accident...and they were "extra relieved" when I told them that i sold my afrock coz I want to focus on dwarf retics).



Thanks again for a GREAT post

[frankykeno]

Oh I did miss that typo, thanks for mentioning it - it's been fixed.

Raul, that's a good point about other pets and their impact on wildlife. I watched a study years ago on the BBC about how many kills your average pampered housecat was making a week. These are not feral cats or cats that even need to hunt but still do. I was blown away by the sheer numbers of kills the average cat in the study area was doing. Add to that the numbers that feral cats take down and you've got a pretty large impact on the wild bird population.

[retic720]

agreed. So many people "attack" pet snakes, when they fail to realize that the "conventional" pet injure/kill more people, even if you consider the numbers in ratios/percentages.

Good thing we have responsible pet keepers such as ourselves who educate the others

[Jason Bowden]

Accidents are preventable. A pet snake should not have killed a child last week. I think the owner of the snake is responsible and should be punished by law/ the court system, etc..

I did like this post. And agree with and can relate with it. I will also try not to get old or bitten by any more snakes! LOL