Simply stunned...

[Wizill]

Well, I'll start by saying that I live in a VERY small town here in VA, and the local paper is read by everyone. This morning I got to work and opened everything up like usual, then plopped down with the paper only to find the front page incredibly uphauling. A photo of a 10 year old girl stood dangling a 6 foot black snake that she had killed with a .22 caliber handgun. I'm not so upset that people kill blacksnakes, you can't expect people who hate snakes to understand the difference between venomous and nonvenomous species. There are, however, 2 things about this article that really get to me. One being the fact that people are allowing their 10 year old daughter's to shoot guns unsupervised. What exactly are these people thinking??? I mean I know I live in the south but DAMN... Secondly, the way the paper made the snake out to be so vicious... and basically promoted the slaying of innocent, harmless animals. I'm not sure what to do about this, but I feel as if something has to be done. I'm considering a letter to the editor, which will definitely get posted in one of next week's issues of the paper. In my letter I will definitely be including my phone numbers so that perhaps a few of these innocent snakes can be rescued and released into nice, people-free woods.

[Smynx]

Be sure to include the fact that without blacksnakes (and other similar snakes) everyone would be overrun with rodents.

[First_time_herp]

:x That is insane! Letting a ten year shoot a gun!?! And killing a harmless animal!?! Man, if I got my hands on whoever did that. :evil:

[JamminJonah]

Just be sure to word the letter so the ten year olds with guns don't show up at your house haha. But seriously, that is bogus man and I think it is a great idea to write a letter to the editor and try to educate some people that most snakes aren't venomous and as smynx said - we'd be over run with rodents.

[Smynx]

Snakes or the plague - you choose.

And the gun thing is just insane. My grandparents always used a garden hoe.

[RobertCoombs]

Maybe the best way to go about it would be to check state protection laws
I live in a very rural part of arkansas and even here most non game species are under some kind of protection . Most of them are not strictly enforced here but with such open disregard such as a picture in the paper something could easily be done about it
Best place to start would be local game and fish or wildlife protection agencies

[gen]

I'd definitely write a letter.

[Alkaurkharim]

Nobody seems to have noticed the most obvious aspect of this.

How is it a 10 year old girl shot a 6 foot snake with a handgun? That has to be incredibly difficult, especially if the snake was moving at the time. If I knew that girl, I'd be scared, very VERY scared that she had such accuracy.

[green_man]

Alkaurkharim - no kidding! she must have a lot of practice....

[Alkaurkharim]

Something tells me that this is not the first snake she has shot either.