Some jerk called Animal Control on me

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Originally Posted by j_h_smith

After reading your post on some of your customers this would be another reason to keep your snake collection a little secretive. A customer, once they know of your snake collection, could find them as currency for buying more drugs. I don't know anything of your location or your office/house layout, but if they can easily be seen from the office, I would move the snakes. Keep them and the knowledge of them to yourselves. I know of people that have been hurt for a lot less.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith

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I didn't even think of this.

Thankfully our living area is separated by not one, but 2 doors. We keep ALL of our doors locked, simply because there is much more traffic around here then a normal apartment. No one can see into our place. I am not sure I could live with that.

All of this has been an excellent learning experience for me.

The owner has decided that she wants to move in a nicer/more expensive direction, so eventually, the 'problem' with the more questionable customers will resolve itself.

I've kept snakes in apartments for the last nine years now, and the only people that ever knew were the owners of the apartment complexes themselves. I never told any of my neighbors.

Everyone here knows there are people in the world that are funny about snakes---they are a creature that elicit a lot of different emotions. For that reason, I keep them in a room that's separated off from the rest of my apartment, that I can keep closed off, if necessary. Even some of my close friends and family don't like them, and, just like I wouldn't want anyone waving a spider around in my face, I'm not going to wave a snake around in theirs.

Same basic concept goes for the neighbors.

Trouble usually knows right where to find me if he needs me, so I tend not to go looking for him lol

I'm glad nothing happened with Animal Control... keep taking great care of those babies! :snake:

Sorry you had to go through that. Even though you were not in possession of any venomous reptiles I would have never let them in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by j_h_smith

After reading your post on some of your customers this would be another reason to keep your snake collection a little secretive. A customer, once they know of your snake collection, could find them as currency for buying more drugs. I don't know anything of your location or your office/house layout, but if they can easily be seen from the office, I would move the snakes. Keep them and the knowledge of them to yourselves. I know of people that have been hurt for a lot less.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith

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I agree 100%

The fact that your home is connected to the hotel you run is kinda sketchy. Especially when you have different people coming in every day. Hell, who knows, someone might realize the amount of money that they could make off of by stealing your collection. :O

Snakes are like guns - misunderstood, and feared by the ignorant.

I don't tell anyone about my guns that I don't completely trust, and (sadly) I'm learning that I have to be careful about who I tell about my snake.

We live in a world where unfounded fear sometimes rules. Sad but true.

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Originally Posted by grits

Sorry you had to go through that. Even though you were not in possession of any venomous reptiles I would have never let them in.

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You've got to pick your battles. You try to play hardball over something that is easily disproved, and the cops can play just as hard and maybe a little more. I think in this instance, if you have nothing to hide you play ball with the cops. After all, the only thing they found was a $6 tag fee.

But what could have happened if she didn't let the cops in? A search warrant, possible TV stations and bad press for the motel. Ultimately, this could have cost her her employment and housing. By playing nice, she got the respect of the cops, nothing was proven and everyone's happy.

Just my opinion!
Jim Smith

I had that happen once. Apparently someone in the neighborhood thought I was keeping OMGZSCARY monster snakes in my house. No trouble from that one, but the inspectors were really funny, because they were a bit afraid of snakes. You should have seen their faces when I warned them some of the females might come flying out of the bin looking for food, so they should be cautious.

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Originally Posted by j_h_smith

But what could have happened if she didn't let the cops in? A search warrant, possible TV stations and bad press for the motel. Ultimately, this could have cost her her employment and housing. By playing nice, she got the respect of the cops, nothing was proven and everyone's happy.

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This exactly. Unfortunately, though I enjoy my job most of the time, and the money is fantastic, its really shown me what scum people can be like.

On the other hand, this job has taught me how important it is to work with local law enforcement, and a ton of other skills unrelated to my story. I know that I am doing nothing wrong. I have nothing to hid. I'm not hiding king cobras in my basement or a meth lab in my bathroom.

Its much easier and a lot less friction to work with them.

we dont have issues with animal control per say but for us it's children's services and it was the same for the last 6-7 yrs we lived in california. we actually moved here to get away from it (no we did not run away they knew where we were going, had our address and everything). the problem with this is always...our 6 yr old special needs son. ppl just dont take the time to try to see the situation for what it is.
they just jump to conclusions like
1) we're starving him cuz he eats like its his last meal (an impulse thing connected to his disability) or
2) we're beating him cuz he's covered in bruises (when he falls alot due to the poor muscle tone in his back and legs and again, this is typical of his disability)

over the years we've learned to just simply not trust anyone and in the last year we were in california we actually kicked a couple friends out of our lives because of the drama they had going on in theirs that was spilling over into ours.
we're private people, we value our rights to privacy and we hate drama. we keep only the closest friends we've known for years and now, are slow to trust anyone new, even medical professionals and school personnel.
so i totally get your frustration there. different situations but same issue, i think.

Oh man what a mess!

I also keep my hobby fairly quite because I don't want someone to go to the city and create a stupid law banning ball pythons.

Lesson learned I suppose :rolleyes: Jerks