Snake Awareness Day - May 14th, 2012

I tried searching this topic with the search function on this forum and came up with absolutely nothing, so I'm really curious whether anyone else here is following the Snake Awareness Day movement that is coming together? It is mostly happening on Facebook. Here is a link to the main Facebook page that addresses it, and snake afficionados from most states in the US have already created state and regional pages to help gather support for the movement. I just created one for Oregon a couple days ago, and I am working with my local herp group on generating ideas for what we can do in our own community. Anyway, they have decided to set the official national Snake Awareness Day for May 14th of this year.

Let's face it.... the general public everywhere really could use a lot more education and awareness about snakes if we don't wish to see any more snake bans come to pass. I do think it is a really good idea for snake keepers to come together within their own communities and make an effort to educate the public about what wonderful animals snakes are and to help clear up misconceptions about them. If you are a Facebooker, I would encourage you to do a search to find out if your state or region already has a snake awareness day page. If not, it is very easy to create one by clicking on the "create a page" button you see at the top right hand corner of the main page that I linked here.

Also please take a look at my Snake Awareness Day - Oregon page at this link and "like" and "share" it if you agree with me that we need to educate the public and promote snake awareness within our communities. Thanks! :)

Snake Awareness Day made the Reptile Report. Those of you that are on Facebook, please "like" and "share" these types of links, so that the reptile community and others will become aware of this movement and get involved in making an effort to educate and promote snake awareness within their communities. Here's the link to the Reptile Report Story:

http://thereptilereport.com/snake-awareness-day/

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Originally Posted by wendhend

Snake Awareness Day made the Reptile Report.

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Given the ties between this site and that one I'm pretty sure if you post that a snake bit you someplace it shouldn't have it will make it to the Reptile Report. :P

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

Given the ties between this site and that one I'm pretty sure if you post that a snake bit you someplace it shouldn't have it will make it to the Reptile Report. :P

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Do they have a bad relationship? I wouldn't know that.

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Originally Posted by wendhend

Do they have a bad relationship? I wouldn't know that.

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No, it's a close relationship. :D

http://thereptilereport.com/about/

Well, I've been here over two years, and I honestly don't know anything about any what kind of contentions might be involved. Personally I think herp people should try to get along for the greater good. I'm really just trying to share information that might make a difference in raising awareness about snakes within our communities and maybe even help to prevent further snake bans from happening. Is that so bad?

Wendy:

Never mind. :rolleye2:

John

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

Wendy:

Never mind. :rolleye2:

John

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:P

I get what you're saying, John. However, if you actually go and check out The Reptile Report, I believe you'll find that it's very balanced. If anything, I go out of my way to not show any favoritism to this site.

They're two completely separate jobs and responsibilities and the two sites are not directly related in any way.

I own this site, but don't make any money from it. I'm a paid employee of The Reptile Report and do not own any part of it. Showing favoritism to BP.net doesn't benefit me or either site in any way.

I like this idea, and I'm considering contacting the local library here, to see if they would like me to bring in some snakes and give a short talk.

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

I like this idea, and I'm considering contacting the local library here, to see if they would like me to bring in some snakes and give a short talk.

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That sounds like a good idea! My local herp group is hoping to do a big snake display at one of the malls, and probably some of us will do school classroom presentations as well.

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

Given the ties between this site and that one I'm pretty sure if you post that a snake bit you someplace it shouldn't have it will make it to the Reptile Report. :P

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Good prediction, John! This thread did make the Reptile Report. Check it out:

http://thereptilereport.com/snake-awareness-day-2/

More awareness is good!!! ;)

Not directly related to snake awareness day (but on the same note), since I hadn't heard of this, and have had this planned since school started. But we will be taking a bp, corn, and Leo in for "show & tell" at our daughters school when they get to that animal unit. Can't remember if its March or May. I think its great that if we can show 28 little kids how neat they are, them we have 28 little kids who won't have misconceptions and be afraid of them as adults. We did the same thing last year, and all but one child was fascinated with the snakes. She would not come near her. I guess you can't reach them all. However its a great hands on learning experience!

I'm trying to get a presentation going at my school. I asked my supervisor about it, and he told me he wants me to talk about Northern pine snakes, since they're an endangered species in the area and it's an environmental school.....but I was hoping to talk more about snake myths, prove they're not inherently deadly, and that some can make great pets, etc. So my supervisor wants me to come up with a plan on what I want to cover. Obviously I can't just list those three things, so how do you guys think I should go about this? If possible, I'll carry it over to my local library too.

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Originally Posted by SpartaDog

I'm trying to get a presentation going at my school. I asked my supervisor about it, and he told me he wants me to talk about Northern pine snakes, since they're an endangered species in the area and it's an environmental school.....but I was hoping to talk more about snake myths, prove they're not inherently deadly, and that some can make great pets, etc. So my supervisor wants me to come up with a plan on what I want to cover. Obviously I can't just list those three things, so how do you guys think I should go about this? If possible, I'll carry it over to my local library too.

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How old are the students? You would have to speak in a manner where the students would understand the best.
Are you allowed to bring in live specimens? Maybe you can start off by showing a live snake and ask what the audience feels and thinks about snakes. From there you can lead off onto the myth vs fact topic.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by satomi325

How old are the students? You would have to speak in a manner where the students would understand the best.
Are you allowed to bring in live specimens? Maybe you can start off by showing a live snake and ask what the audience feels and thinks about snakes. From there you can lead off onto the myth vs fact topic.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

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High school students in a marine science/technology academy. So they're pretty intelligent XD

Probably not allowed to bring in live specimens, since we tried that once and it blew up in our faces. But I definitely planned on asking about it.

I'll probably just go make a separate thread about this. Thanks!

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

Not directly related to snake awareness day (but on the same note), since I hadn't heard of this, and have had this planned since school started. But we will be taking a bp, corn, and Leo in for "show & tell" at our daughters school when they get to that animal unit. Can't remember if its March or May. I think its great that if we can show 28 little kids how neat they are, them we have 28 little kids who won't have misconceptions and be afraid of them as adults. We did the same thing last year, and all but one child was fascinated with the snakes. She would not come near her. I guess you can't reach them all. However its a great hands on learning experience!

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Hands-on school presentations are always a hit, and from my experience they always end with all (or almost all) of the kids that were initially nervous about snakes liking them and wanting to hold and /or pet them. I've had a number of kids tell me that my snake presentations were the most exciting thing that their class had done all year. And they are SO easy to do! I highly recommend setting up classroom snake presentations on or around Snake Awareness Day.

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Originally Posted by SpartaDog

High school students in a marine science/technology academy. So they're pretty intelligent XD

Probably not allowed to bring in live specimens, since we tried that once and it blew up in our faces. But I definitely planned on asking about it.

I'll probably just go make a separate thread about this. Thanks!

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That's too bad about not being able to bring in live specimens. With the kids I have worked with (mostly elementary through middle school), having the live animals present and being able to touch them is what really seems to make the presentations meaningful to them. Maybe with more mature kids it wouldn't be as necessary, though.

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Originally Posted by wendhend

That's too bad about not being able to bring in live specimens. With the kids I have worked with (mostly elementary through middle school), having the live animals present and being able to touch them is what really seems to make the presentations meaningful to them. Maybe with more mature kids it wouldn't be as necessary, though.

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That's why we wanted to do it. But my principal flipped out and was all "You can't bring live animals to school" and wah wah wah. Even though it was a summer program and adults were going to be present and we had the okay from two teachers and the supervisor... And they decided not to tell us until the last day of school so we had absolutely no time to fight it. But we're going to fight a lot harder for it this time.

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Originally Posted by SpartaDog

That's why we wanted to do it. But my principal flipped out and was all "You can't bring live animals to school" and wah wah wah. Even though it was a summer program and adults were going to be present and we had the okay from two teachers and the supervisor... And they decided not to tell us until the last day of school so we had absolutely no time to fight it. But we're going to fight a lot harder for it this time.

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How frustrating! Maybe you could take the the kids on a field trip to somewhere off the school campus and do it in a place where having live animals present wouldn't be considered a problem? Maybe that way other members of the community could join in as well if the word got out. Just a thought.....