Snake Haters

[alexOATH]

Ugh >.< I'm sorry I just need to vent. My fiance's older brother is a snake hater and he has to shove all his opinions on how my BALL PYTHONS are apparently going to kill everyone and eat them. To top it off he's one of those "Internet Trolls" (yes, I was fascinated to meet one in real life, they're exactly as I imagined), so you can bring fact after fact, statistic after statistic, and you can talk sense into this guy 'til you're blue in the face and he's still right and you're wrong.

I've gotten to the point where I just toy with him and bring up news articles of dogs and such killing children (which are surprisingly easy to find 0.o) and tell him to go join the HSUS and ban all animals. And it shuts him up with me at least.

Of course now that my fiance and I are having a child he's at it again. Now he's harassing my fiance at work about how he needs to put his foot down on me and not allow me to get any more snakes and get rid of the ones I already own. Its getting tiring. My fiance and I both know thats not an option, when I started dating him I was very clear that I love my snakes, they are more important to me than you are, if you ever try to tell me to get rid of one or sell one I will be out of your life before you know what happened. And he knows all this and he's fine with it, he loves our snakies as much as I do.

I know my future brother-in-law is concerned that one of the snakes will harm our soon to be born child, but I am 100% confident that will not happen. In the years that I have owned reptiles I have never had one escape, ever. They're all in properly locked containers that they have no hope of getting out of. They live in my closet and when my child is old enough the door will be locked. Sadly 20 years can go buy with not one little incident between those snakes and my son and this guy will still blame all the problems of the world on my poor harmless snakes.

I mean, I know there is nothing my future brother-in-law can do and that I should just ignore it, which I generally do, but its getting tiring. I keep telling him that when I have a full grown burm I'm going to let it loose on him and hey maybe he'll be right and it'll eat him, no great loss in my eyes .

Anyway, sorry, that was my vent. I feel better now.

[SnakesNStangss22]

I know what you mean, my family and my fiancee family is the same way, flipping out that my BP will kill everyone. Now granite, I do Have a brb with could get pretty big (8+ft) but like you j Have racks, and locks know everything... plus a spare room where no one, bit me, go in. It is very frustrating, but at the end of the day, its your life and your fiancea's. And your family needs to understand that.. mine finally did and it a lot better. My mom is a person who believes EVERYTHING she sees/hears on the tv or news, so you can only imagine. But I finally got to her the real facts and she likes snakes now...

Good luck, and sorry if none of this makes since, bit my phone isn't the best to type long responses lol.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

[dragonboy4578]

I can understand the frustration that you feel. I have a few friends that are horrified that I have snakes. They love to ask what I would do if one of the snakes ate someone. I just laugh and tell them that I would let the snake digest the meal. lol Then I explain that even the largest ball python could not eat a human, and that their dogs have a better chance to hurt someone than my snakes do. I also have had to tell a few people that if they don't like my snakes that they don't have to come over to my house.

[serenewaves]

I am so sorry, but it will probably never stop. You just need to find a way to ignore that & know that only you & your fiance will be the ones making decisions about the snakes & the baby. (Congrats by the way!) I have a couple that I work with and they have 12 snakes in their home & have a soon to be 2 year old. Everyone in the family that wasn't a snake person was sooooo worried about the baby with the snakes. It's ridiculous! They have them in racks & in a spare room & their son doesn't go in there without their supervision. He's 2 for crying out loud! I've got a pic of him with one of my snakes ( they snake watched while I moved ) he's grown up with the snakes & his parents have let him touch them & hold them (they are cornsnakes, balls, sand boas & 1 juv red tail) but all with their supervision. As a parent you wouldn't allow anything to happen to your child, again the dogs are at more of a risk of harming the child than the snakes. (They have 2 pit mixes so they got the talks from that angle too) But they told their family to keep their opinions to themselves & they are raising their son with their opinions & to be a responsible pet owner. It's calmed down for now, but when he was a baby I know they had a lot of "advice"

My fiance isn't a snake lover but he knows I love my snakes so he's very supportive and just asks that I don't ask him to hold them or have them out when he's in the room. But he would never ask me to rehome them, he knows that the animals are a part of me and they aren't going anywhere. He has 3 boys, and they will hold the snakes with my supervision but really don't pay them any attention unless I'm messing with them. It will all be ok, I hope the stories of others in the same situation you are help you know that you have support here whenever you need it!

[Mft62485]

I also have to say to never be 100% sure of anything. But some people are going to say everything is dangerous. Too bad people don't mind there own business anymore.

[alexOATH]

Yes, he will forever hate them.

But you know, two can play at that game. I'm going to get his son a plush stuffed animal snake just for kicks. lol.

And yeah, I worded that wrong, I'm as confident as I can be owning any animal with a child that nothing will happen.

[wilomn]

So, this brother of the guy you're supposed to marry also wants a voice in the relationship you're supposed to be having with his brother.....uh huh, I can see loads of happiness being trucked your way.

Oooops, that was the PortaPotty Truck, not the Happiness Express. They're both Bright Blue and I sometimes confuse them from a distance. Up close though, there's no doubt which is which. At least out here.

Perhaps some boundaries or rules of engagement of just plain ol' off limits signs would suit you better than toying with the willfully ignorant.

[Valentine Pirate]

I can understand the frustration! People are just so strange in how they treat snakes, there's a gentleman in my biology class who's been asking me questions about my pets and snakes in general so I've been answering his questions. However, in lab the other day I go across the room to deal with a culture in the incubator and I hear him saying to the other lab partner "She really knows her snakes, it's the creepiest thing I've ever witnessed. Wait until we see her in the headlines strangled to death"

So much for education I hope your potential brother in law doesn't overstep his boundaries! (Though I'm sure you're more than capable of kicking his a** back into place if it comes to that )

[alexOATH]

LOL Yeah I can see I'm in for quite a treat, I shall have to remind Dawayne, the brother-in-law, that I am marrying his brother, not his family.

Luckily I'm pretty easy going and you can talk your nonsense to me and I'll just go about my way doing my thing.

[angllady2]

There isn't a cure for stupid unfortunately.

Now as to snakes being dangerous ?

I have a 14 year old daughter. She loves my ball pythons and handles them regularly. I don't worry when she does, never have. She's smart and confident, and while she's never been bitten I have and so has her daddy. When I get bit I laugh, you can't help it. It's such a non-event. Her daddy on the other hand freaked out so badly now he's terrified of the snakes, and if he thinks one is even thinking about biting he goes off the deep end.

Ambria takes after me. She's told me several times she's not afraid of being bitten, and if it happens and the snake won't let go, as happened to her dad, she knows not to panic but let me help her.

A few years ago, our next door neighbor's dog attacked and bit Ambria for no reason. Tore her pants right off her leg. Fortunately, it's teeth hung in her jeans so her leg was only scratched. But this guy comes over to my house, giving me song and dance about how his dog didn't bite Ambria, that it was Ambria's fault, the dog was only playing with her, on and on and on. Biggest jerk in history, upset me so badly I went to the neigbor in back of us and hid, this guy had his whole family ganging up on me saying it was caused by the dogs foot and not a bite. Worst thing was, it was a pitbull, and had already attacked two other people so he knew it was not supposed to be outside unsupervised. He was threatening me because of his own carelessness and stupidity. And I'm way more uncomfortable with her being around a large or strange dog than I am my snakes.

Gale