Is there really a huge controversy over reptile ownership??

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Originally Posted by the_rotten1

@Nellasaur So all of this guy's reptiles died young and he's claiming to be an expert? Sounds like a load of bs. What about people who've kept reptiles for 20+ years and watched them grow to a ripe old age? I suppose they have no idea what they're talking about.

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Not only that, but the "International Institute for Herpetology" doesn't seem to exist anymore and turns up next to no Google results-- one of which is this article. But I was stubborn and refusing to listen to sound advice for questioning the validity of this dude's credentials. :/

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Originally Posted by Reinz

How is that this "World expert" or the author for that matter, :rage: doesn't cite one single example how reptiles are being miskept.

I do agree that many reptiles are miskept. Just peruse Craig's List and you will see plenty of animals not kept well. :please: However, the key is proper education.

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Bingooo. It really seems like this was an ill-researched or op-ed piece from a newspaper in 1994, which isn't exactly the most reliable source in the world, especially when arguing about modern husbandry practices. Plus, the more research I do into this guy, the more likely it seems that he's a total hack with a crappy agenda. SMH.

Its soooo funny my religious conservative mother ended up being the MOST supportive when I told her because she works with kids and they had multiple "reptile days" at her job where she got to pet them..... My "friends" are obviously wimps....hahaha

Wow. I had no idea that so many people got wrapped around the axle over snakes. I get that some don't understand them and are afraid, but I had no clue so many were strait up offended. My passion for reptiles and animals has really been a blessing for me. My 6th grade Earth Science teacher was into reptiles and was a huge role model for me when I didn't have another positive male influence in my life. I took the very first snake I ever caught to him and he told me what it was and pointed me in the right direction to learn as much as I could. Reptiles in general have always fascinated me. My mom was very open minded and pretty much let me keep whatever I wanted within reason and trust me, I brought home everything you can think of. I wish the internet had been around back then. I get being creeped out by snakes, but some of the backlash you guys are describing is crazy. I'm not even going to touch the religious side of things.

As it happens my neighbor just came over to ask what she could bake my 5 kids for Halloween when she spotted my fiance holding our bp Sydney in the background. She bellowed that she couldn't even beleive that she was looking at it and proceeded to tell is about her four cats. I used the opertunity to explain to her how sweet a bp can be. I wanted to explain that her cats could do more damage than our Sydney but I didn't want to be a jerk. Dont know if I got through to her but at least she saw a snake and didn't die lol!

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Originally Posted by Soord

Not true dogs will eat their owner too if left without food

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Ok..as bad as this sounds.. I know this is true for a fact. My FIL passed away in his sleep...he wasnt found for over a week..... His dog was locked in his room w him, as he took his dog to bed w him every night... Guess how he was found? Yep...poor dog got hungry.

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Originally Posted by cletus

My 6th grade Earth Science teacher was into reptiles and was a huge role model for me when I didn't have another positive male influence in my life. I took the very first snake I ever caught to him and he told me what it was and pointed me in the right direction to learn as much as I could.

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My bio and environmental geoscience high school teachers got me into reptiles! They had lots of them as classroom pets and they taught me about chameleon and BP husbandry which I ended up loving for some reason and I decided my sophomore year of high school I wanted my own reptile someday. But I ended up waiting until my junior year of college to actually get one. Oops.
Anyways, I really think if people were just willing to learn more about reptiles from people like our teachers about how amazing they are, there wouldn't be so much controversy. I'm a super new beginner to reptile care but I'm under the impression that the reptile industry has changed a lot for the better as far as care and trustworthiness goes.

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Originally Posted by Jeanne

Ok..as bad as this sounds.. I know this is true for a fact. My FIL passed away in his sleep...he wasnt found for over a week..... His dog was locked in his room w him, as he took his dog to bed w him every night... Guess how he was found? Yep...poor dog got hungry.

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When someone first mentioned a dog eating it's dead owner it seemed plausible and did not affect me.

After reading Jeanne's comment which personalized the topic, I am really creeped out now. :puke2:

The thing we should keep in mind is that while we all know that a ball python as less ability to do real damage to a human than any dog or cat - or, for that matter, any number of small furry animals with big strong teeth - most people just don't know that much about snakes and there really are snakes out there that really can do serious damage to a human. Some snakes really do have big fangs, venom, or just get big enough to make a bite potentially serious let alone a squeeze.

One comment I recently had on a photo of my BP that I posted to Facebook was from someone who assumed he must be venomous, because he has a triangular head. Of course, to a person living in most of the continental US (anywhere without coral snakes), that's not a bad rule of thumb, because all venomous snakes are pit vipers. If its head is triangular, leave it alone because it's dangerous. But that rule of thumb is useless for all the venomous species that are not pit vipers, and it's also useless for all the pythons and boas with "triangular" heads.

And if you watch most wildlife shows, especially the kinds of stuff on the Discovery Channel, you see lots of stuff like "SUPER PREDATOR SNAKE IS A VICIOUS RUTHLESS KILLER THAT CAN TAKE DOWN BIG PREY INSTANTLY!!!! *cue dramatic music*" because that is exciting and sensational. You don't see "Small harmless animal hides from predators and sneaks out when no one's looking to control the rodent population". Just try selling car ads to air during those two programs, and see which one the advertisers are interested in. You don't see all of the hundreds of small, secretive, difficult-to-film, obscure snake species that eat bugs and worms and frogs. You don't see how long the snake waited for prey to come by, or how many times it entered a rodent burrow and got scared off by defensive mamas. You definitely don't see it spending two weeks looking for a good hunting spot before actually catching anything. Try selling ads for "Small harmless snake comes out and slithers around every evening but doesn't catch anything all week, but that's OK because it will catch something eventually and won't starve in the meantime". Not a lot of drama there; it's almost as exciting as the "making of" program, where a TV crew tramps around in the wilderness with a lot of expensive gear, to try and find an animal that is excellently camouflaged and small enough that they could step on one and not even notice, and then when they do see one it disappears into the brush before they can grab a camera. And everything interesting that it does, happens in the leaf litter or under logs and rocks and all the other tiny interstices of the forest floor where big humans and their big cameras can't easily follow.

So people hear about big snakes and venomous snakes, and they don't hear much about the ones that are secretive and harmless to humans, which is actually most of them.

I hate to keep bringing up spiders, but it's a perfect equivalent.

Not a lot of people know that a lot of spider species are actually non-toxic to us.

Not a lot of people know that skunks are quicker to spray than a spider/snake would use their venom. Skunks have a limited amount, however they don't need to save their distasteful excrement to eat.


Herp Derp