The Ben Siegel Contest Tragedy

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I heard about this earlier today on AFN (Armed Forces Network) Radio in Germany. I thought it was sad, and crazy both what happened and the fact that it was on AFN. They only gave vague details about an insect eating contest, and the someone involved died. They also had an experts comments on how they do not see how this could have happened from the insects. I do not know what is being said in the U.S. by the media, but from the sounds of what you all say it is not good.

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Originally Posted by heylookitsjon

It really is tragic and the comments from the media and the public have been nasty and inflammatory. As much as my heart goes out to Eddies family, I can't help but feel...aggravated that this has turned into a media circus and us Ball python keepers (and helpers in general) are again being seen as mentally unstable and "weird". This sort of incident unfortunately paints us all with the same wife brush, and it's not flattering.

My heart goes out to Eddies family, to Ben and his family and staff, and I pray this all blows over soon.

/2¢


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X2

The comments from the public and the media have been horrid. It shouldn't matter how he died or what he was doing before he died, all the should matter is that a young man lost his life.

I feel horrible for Ben, his staff, Eddie's family and the other people who were there when this happened. :tears:

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Originally Posted by sissysnakes

How can we view the QT thread?

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QT is available to any member...they need only contact an admin (one of us with our name in red) and ask to see it. I'll take this as your request and go ahead and set that up for you, but we prefer requests to be sent in PMs. :)

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/10/10/3ame5yhu.jpg

Can't believe it


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This story is totally being blown out of proportion. I have read people's comments and it just sickens me. I feel sad about the whole thing. It was an accident, as in it was never meant to happen at all. Why do people feel the need to ridicule and point fingers? This is a sad day for the reptile community. I have sat here long and hard and thought about this all day. Would I personally eat bugs just to win a snake, no. A man has died and that is truly tragic.

This is going to be a headache of a media circus. Fear factor has done much more questionable challenges (as far as ingesting... things... goes) but this is going to get absolutely slammed because it's related to the hobby. How awful!

My heart goes out to the family, such an unexpected terrible way to lose a loved one :(

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Originally Posted by Valentine Pirate

This is going to be a headache of a media circus. Fear factor has done much more questionable challenges (as far as ingesting... things... goes) but this is going to get absolutely slammed because it's related to the hobby. How awful!

My heart goes out to the family, such an unexpected terrible way to lose a loved one :(

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Exactly!!! I had an alternate version to my earlier post that included fear factor. It's okay for someone to eat raw cow eyes for money with a chance of getting E. coli or worse from that but just because someone ate bugs for a snake it's instantly everyone in the reptile communities weird ways that caused his death. Simply ridiculous.

Sad day for the herp world. I hope Siegel can bounce back

This pretty aptly sums up what's going on in the "community"

http://reptileapartment.com/2012/10/...ent-community/