The same sad comments about my snakes... (vent)

I realized that my lip always quivers (in alertness) when people ask me more in-depth things about my snakes/snake info now, because I get on high alert if they're going to insult me again/make fun of me/make another pointless joke about putting my snakes with my birds to see what will happen. -__- ??!?!?

Why would anyone think this is funny to me? What do they expect me to do, be like, "OH HA HA YEAH, THEY'LL EAT THEM!!! HA HA HA!"

God lol.

It's weird how in the brief few months I've owned my HARMLESS, NON-VENOMOUS snakes, I have already gotten enough crude comments towards me and my pets to last a lifetime. They are ALL my PETS, just like a cat or dog is somebody's pet. Am I going to make stupid comments like, "Just wait one day, your dog is going to kill your other dog! FUNNY JOKE!" How does that make it okay for my small snakes, who in reality are just another harmless reptile?

Suddenly angry about this, because of the realization that I'm ALREADY hypersensitive/anxious when people talk to me about snakes. And that should not be happening unless I've already experienced hurt by it. *pychoanalyzes myself*

What kinds of sad comments has anyone else gotten? How do you guys keep your chill/respond? I wish I was a bit more stoic.

I had an aunt ask what I would do when "the serpent wrapped around his (my son) neck".

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Originally Posted by h20hunter

I had an aunt ask what I would do when "the serpent wrapped around his (my son) neck".

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I forgot about this- I totally have gotten this comment too, MULTIPLE times from different people. :bow:

People have given me that comment and "What if your snake bites you"

I laugh and explain that my son knows how to uncoil the snake if it starts to choke. I also explain that my snake biting me is a lot less than their dog or cat biting them.

On the bright side. Part of my family refuses to come to my house because of the snakes. That works for me because those are the family members I do not invite over and do not want over anyway.

I have found that most people that make the comments like these and I am sure worse are afraid of snakes because they are uneducated about them. I have some neighbors that were scared to death of snakes when I moved in, within a week I was not allowed to hang out with them unless I had one of the snakes with me. All I did was talk about the snakes and educated them on the personalitys of the ball pythons and showed them how docile they are and also how responsible I am with my collection. Its really funny when I moved in they would not set foot on the driveway they were so scared of the snakes. Now they are going to be buying some of my clutchs when they hatch.

I used to get bothered. Now I don't. Just calmly respond with the truth. I hear that myth about sizing up all the time and start with "Well actually, that's a really common myth..." and then launch into how snakes aren't intelligent enough to measure their food with their bodies, how no snake can swallow a person, how a bite is two pin pricks that hurt less than a paper cut, etc. Just calmly dispel the myths and misunderstandings if they say something and act whatever about it. The people that are genuinely interested will keep asking you questions.

I've found the best way to be an advocate for snakes is just by people knowing I have them. Once they start asking questions about them and their care, you know you've got them. I've gotten quite a few people who would freak with a snake in the room to the level where they hold them. You've just gotta act whatever about it, not force it, and let them come to you with questions.

I think the biggest thing to non snake people is they generally thing that snake people are these weird cultish people that like to have "dangerous" pets. Me being a normal enough human who just happens to have a lot of snakes, peaks interest about the snakes. And the second you say "python" their eyes get big (most people associate the word python with 20' man eater), so I follow that with the actual size of the snakes and their temperaments and show pictures of all the morphs I have. The pied is very popular. Best you can do is open up their minds one person at a time.

I think part of the charm about owning snakes is that they aren't the same run-of-the-mill pets as dogs or cats. If everyone knew how great it was to own snakes, it would diminish part of the fun mystique of owning them. Just my 2 cents.

You can't fix adults but do everything you can to educate and expose children to them. Eventually the world will change around all of those who refuse to change with it.

What Marrissa said.

Also, you should think more about why you care what other people are saying/thinking. Me, I don't care what others think of me owning snakes.

Some good responses I've used..
"Ewww, I hate snakes!"
"Oh, I love ALL animals!"

"Why would anyone own a snake?"
"Lots of people don't have time or space for a dog or cat. And kids who are allergic to furry pets can still have a snake or lizard!"

"Won't it bite you?" "Has it ever bitten you?"
"Oh, the worst it can do is like a papercut. I've been mauled by a pomeranian once, that was scary! And kicked by horses, boy does that hurt. The snakes are harmless."

"I'd NEVER own a snake!"
"That's fine, I love them enough to more than make up for you not owning any. I'll take your share of the snakes and you can have my share of the budgies! Those little birds bite so hard!"

And of course, when someone does say deliberately asinine things like "I'd kill that snake if I saw it" I look them dead in the eye and tell them quite calmly "That snake is my pet and if you touch it, it's the same as if I went to your home and said I'd kill your dog because I don't like *insert breed of dog*".

I've had hundreds of people over decades that begin with "I hate snakes!" and "I'm terrified of snakes" end up as people who become fascinated enough to touch and hold a snake... often within minutes of talking with me around a ball python. I've had little girls that the parent states are completely terrified of all snakes come up within five minutes and stare fascinated at a ball python I'm holding and then want to touch it. I let them touch it on the tail usually while I hold the head end well away or on the other sided of my body. They learn that snakes are not slimy and feel "neat" and look really cool.

I completely loathe when someone proudly runs around saying how they scare the public with their snake or thrust a python at someone when they hear the person is scared of snakes. Because really, we are the only ambassadors for snakes and the whole herp culture that many of these people will EVER see or hear from. If WE don't show them that snakes are just another pet, then they will continue to have a poor opinion of snakes.

We have royals and a pitbull lol I'm no longer bothered by uneducated or just pure ignorant people. I'll teach if they will listen but I will not waste my time trying to convince people that my pets are sweeties and not vicious killers lol

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I get all of the same comments from my coworkers (mostly women) - "why do you have snakes?", then they cringe and squirm. I explain that they are not slimy, scary, etc. They won't get out at night and hunt me down (although I do fear them getting out but only because God knows where they would end up and I don't want to lose them, in any way). My best answer is that they are so darned interesting and I am learning something that, mostly does not frustrate me. I can't handle dumb pets (some dogs and cats are just plain dumb or stubborn or both) and don't like spending all my time trying to teach an animal where to go to the bathroom, to come, heel, etc. I love taking out my snakes and looking them over, letting them crawl over my shoulders, and head, on the computer and keyboard and all kinds of crazy places. I find it very relaxing and when it's time to put them back I am the one who is hesitant so if they turn to come out or stick up their head, I'm taking them back out again. I am trying to educate other people and I am not the stereotypical snake owner (at least not to my coworkers). I am an old fart, getting ready to retire and I envision that taking care of snakes and possibly breeding will be a big part of my retirement. I have shown the snakes to kids in the neighborhood and tried to show them how to handle snakes, etc. - the kids do a lot better than the parents!

Theresa has some good points.

The best way to adapt is to come up with good answers to comments/questions. For example:

"Why on earth would you own A SNAKE?"
"They are quiet, docile, don't take up much room, don't make noise, are hypo-allergenic, don't make big messes, never need to be walked or have a litter box, and best of all, they only eat once a week! What's NOT to love about owning a snake?"

"Aren't you afraid it will eat your child, dog, cat, etc?"
"in the first place, my snakes don't get big enough to eat anything bigger than a rat/mouse. In the second place, do you believe everything you see on TV? Almost no snake gets big enough to eat a dog or cat, and NONE get big enough to eat a person."

"Why would you want to own the Devil/Satan?!?"
"Satan, seriously? So let me get this straight, you think Jesus was a sheep? If calling the son of god a lamb was a metaphor, why would you think the devil being a snake was any different?"

"Don't they bite?"
"Anything that has a mouth can bite. Ever had a teething baby latch onto your finger? While bites sometimes do happen, a kitten does more damage than one of my snakes. If you aren't afraid of a kitten, there is no reason to be afraid of my snakes."

"Aren't they slimy and gross?"
"Actually no, snakes are warm and very soft, like leather. And they can come in some pretty awesome paintjobs! ( morphs )"

"Aren't you afraid it will strangle/constrict you?"
"not at all. My little snakes couldn't hurt me if they tried, and even my biggest female, if she gets carried away, is as easy to remove as unwrapping a scarf."

Things like these will curb a lot of the ignorance.

Gale

Re-education is key! Although it's hard to get most people to listen. People often the fear what they don't understand and are uninterested in changing what they think they know about such things.

I think my best comments were,

"Why can't you just get a REAL pet like a cat or dog?" - ex boyfriend

"Why would you keep such a dangerous animal? Arn't all snakes venous? "
- Aunt

"...that isn't a kitten."
-friend

"Remind me to never stay at your house, I'd hate to wake up to a snake strangling me in my sleep." - Grandma

"Don't be thinking you can bring that thing over whenever you want. That snake isn't allowed to just roam around my house... you don't have it on you do you?" -Dad

"I'm just worried that one day your roommate is going to call me and tell me your dead because you insist on keeping bloodthirsty killers as pets."
-mom

As you may have noticed I don't get my love of snakes/reptiles from my family. I deal with it all the time and love the chance to tell them what owning snakes is REALLY like. It takes a while but slowly they are beginning to listen.

Luckily I have an uncle that shares my passion for reptiles, and the rest of our family looks at us like we have three heads at family get togethers when we start talking about them.

A thick skin helps.
I mostly just shrug people off, and I don't share my personal life with jerks anyway.

I'm surprised that more people aren't won over by the sheer beauty of your photos of them, esp. Cake, but... it is what it is.

Personal theory:

I think many people have a morbid fascination with danger, and they see the snake as an easy stand-in. The phallic shape doesn't help matters either. Most can't get their minds out of the gutter, and for those who are too polite to mention such a hang-up, they just end up in an unreachable state of cognitive dissonance; viewing the women snake keepers as trashy deviants, and the men as dirty. A certain young rapper posing with her behind in a thong hasn't helped matters in that regard.

IMHO, morphs are probably the best thing to happen to snakes. A pearly lavender and yellow snake changes all the associations.

I've literally been asked "What is your obsession with animals that want to eat your face off?" and told to have the hospital on speed-dial (I keep some tarantulas and scorpions too, though none that would be able to do any serious harm). Usually these are meant jokingly, as everyone who knows me knows they'll get an hour-long biology lesson if they insist something stupid is true. I don't get a lot of seriously negative comments about my herps.

Ugh, the worst is that I recently ended up with an accidental pet mouse (Little guy turned around to confront my BP whenever she was about to strike and eventually freaked her out enough that she gave up... Impressed me enough that I decided to adopt him) and people act seriously suspicious that I'm suddenly going to kill him by giving him to my python. That ticks me off in a way that stupid comments about my reptiles don't, because they're implying that I'd suddenly kill off an animal I made the commitment to keep, and also that because I have snakes I must be some sort of animal-torturing psychopath... I usually say something like "Just because I have snakes doesn't mean I hate mice. Just like you can eat a hamburger without me assuming that you run around clubbing baby cows to death."

I had a male coworker tell me once that he thought me feeding rats to my snakes was just plain sick and twisted and I was basically in the making of becoming a serial killer. It makes me wonder what he things his dog food/treats are made out of?

Oddly enough, because I do educate calmly (in public at least), explain that ball pythons and dumeril's in particular are the most docile snake, how they just hide in a hole all day and sleep until they come out to eat a mouse, they aren't even remotely strong enough to strangle a person, my flimsy arms are much stronger than they are, ball pythons tend to imprint on a type of prey, the bites themselves are tiny and hardly hurt at all, etc.

But the same people who I "educate" continue to not believe me/continue to make such comments/think I'm just playing the devil's advocate/am just a misinformed child who naively thinks all animals are gentle. LOL.

Yeah, I definitely don't have a particularly thick skin- I'd say I'm just an average person when it comes to that, so the endless repeating comments are making me quite fed up with these people who won't sit and listen, and instead would rather believe the myths and Hollywood stereotypes they've heard before.

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Originally Posted by angllady2

Theresa has some good points.

The best way to adapt is to come up with good answers to comments/questions. For example:

"Why on earth would you own A SNAKE?"
"They are quiet, docile, don't take up much room, don't make noise, are hypo-allergenic, don't make big messes, never need to be walked or have a litter box, and best of all, they only eat once a week! What's NOT to love about owning a snake?"

"Aren't you afraid it will eat your child, dog, cat, etc?"
"in the first place, my snakes don't get big enough to eat anything bigger than a rat/mouse. In the second place, do you believe everything you see on TV? Almost no snake gets big enough to eat a dog or cat, and NONE get big enough to eat a person."

"Why would you want to own the Devil/Satan?!?"
"Satan, seriously? So let me get this straight, you think Jesus was a sheep? If calling the son of god a lamb was a metaphor, why would you think the devil being a snake was any different?"

"Don't they bite?"
"Anything that has a mouth can bite. Ever had a teething baby latch onto your finger? While bites sometimes do happen, a kitten does more damage than one of my snakes. If you aren't afraid of a kitten, there is no reason to be afraid of my snakes."

"Aren't they slimy and gross?"
"Actually no, snakes are warm and very soft, like leather. And they can come in some pretty awesome paintjobs! ( morphs )"

"Aren't you afraid it will strangle/constrict you?"
"not at all. My little snakes couldn't hurt me if they tried, and even my biggest female, if she gets carried away, is as easy to remove as unwrapping a scarf."

Things like these will curb a lot of the ignorance.

Gale

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I've actually gotten all of these comments/questions before already, and responded in a similar way to you. About 50% of the people I tell don't seem to believe me- look at me like I'm just a naive kid who does not understand the ~danger of the snakes I own~. The best we can do, I guess!

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

Some good responses I've used..
"Ewww, I hate snakes!"
"Oh, I love ALL animals!"

"Won't it bite you?" "Has it ever bitten you?"
"Oh, the worst it can do is like a papercut. I've been mauled by a pomeranian once, that was scary! And kicked by horses, boy does that hurt. The snakes are harmless."

"I'd NEVER own a snake!"
"That's fine, I love them enough to more than make up for you not owning any. I'll take your share of the snakes and you can have my share of the budgies! Those little birds bite so hard!"

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Nice ones- I actually answered these in the EXACT same way as you, particularly the loving animals and papercuts part.
I do wish I was more thick-skinned for this, but it is what it is. Starting to get annoyed finally after a couple months of, "Did your snakes go after your dogs yet?" and I solemnly reply, "Dogs and cats can bite my snakes in half without a second though." :|

After showing a photo of my snake to some women at work one of them said "That would make a nice purse".
:taz:

But even though the questions can be ridiculous it's really best to pause for a moment and use the opportunity to educate. Many people have never held or even been close to a snake so they really don't know more than what they've seen in movies and newspaper headlines.

Not everyone wants to be educated.
Subtle bullies just get the stink eye from me, and I move on. I won't even give them the time of day.
Shunning IS morally acceptable.

The genuinely curious will keep the veiled insults out of their comments and questions.

The one comment that ticks me off is "oooo you're snakes come from the devil" or "they are going to steal you're sould" like really ??? Why are you bringing religion into this ugh!!!!! >:(

When people tell me snakes bite or ask if they have bitten me I like to start pointing to scars on my body.

"See this one?? That's from a dachshund that bit me when I worked at the vets as a kid. Oh, how about this one? Oh... that's from the cat last week." *dramatic pause* "Wait... see this big one here? It's from the most dangerous animal I've ever lived with." I wait for their eyes to bug out and them to breathe "What is it?"

And then tell them that it is from my baby sister when she was 4 and had a tantrum.

This sort of news article doesn't help our cause either: http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1...river-a-fright. Everybody gets a bit freaked out by this. I'm worried what my neighbors would think if they knew that I had snakes. A ring tailed boa must mean red tail and how come so may people have their snakes get away on them. Maybe I'm just paranoid or I've read enough on here to know better but my snakes don't get too far out of my sight and their enclosures are checked to ensure that they don't escape. Last year or the year before that an entire floor of an apartment building was evacuated because a ball python got loose. But we also had the sad story of the two little boys killed in New Brunswick and that kind of publicity really puts a bad light on any snakes. It's a tough, uphill battle that we face to have snakes accepted as good pets. It's a similar situation to people owning pitbulls and Rottweilers. The entire breed is discriminated against because of some bad owners.

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Originally Posted by Drake Moonslayer

People have given me that comment and "What if your snake bites you"


On the bright side. Part of my family refuses to come to my house because of the snakes. That works for me because those are the family members I do not invite over and do not want over anyway.

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I literally laughed out loud!

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Originally Posted by highqualityballz

I literally laughed out loud!

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Yup. Another great reason to someday own a Burm.

I like to test the waters without bringing my snakes into it. :) It's a workaround, for sure, but it helps cut down on the situations where I find myself actually discussing snakes with a snake hater.

I draw, like a lot, I'm always doodling during meetings at work and when I'm out sitting down in public... sometimes I draw snakes. That method worked to alert me to the fact that one of my co-workers is TERRIFIED of snakes, so I don't talk about them or show pictures of them around her. :) My manager is actually intrigued, so I can discuss/show-and-tell with him. The rest of my teammates have no strong feelings either way, so I don't actively insert snake-facts into daily conversations, but sometimes they ask questions. :) And I love answering them!

Another thing I have done with a lot of my friends is simply ask, "How do you feel about snakes?" And then, based on their responses, I know whether it's safe to proceed with further snake-related discussion/introductions, or never bring it up again. I have one friend who loves hearing about the snakes, but keeps rats as pets - so we discuss the snakes, but not their food. :) It all works out.

Had a good comment today. We are in the process of selling our house and we have listed that we have a pet per most listing agreements. Got a call from an agent requesting to show and she asked "is THE SNAKE still in the house". I wanted to reply, well, I think so, she got out a few days ago and we are hoping she turns up!

I know the struggle. My fiance's mom goes with the old as time line "The only good snake is a dead snake." At least when me and my fiance get married our growing collection will keep visits down.

I think when you've been in the hobby long enough, you'll hear it all. And as long as you remember your passion, it's easy to have an answer for most people.

I tend to use humor or 'jokes' as a way to diffuse situations away from the snakes and instead talk about the person who is making those comments.

"If you brought that snake out near me, I would kill it without a second thought" - Father in law
"Wow really? You know, someone who can easily kill animals are usually psychopaths.... I'm a little worried. Who goes around killing other people's pets? That's crazy. You're ridiculous"

"I heard that my friend had a snake blah-blah-blah woke up with it lying beside her, measuring her to see if it could eat her!"
"Oddly enough, that's how I often how I measure my own meals. My mother always said: 'Don't eat anything bigger than your head!' It gets awkward when you're out at a restaurant, though, you know? But seriously, snakes don't actually do that, haha. Do you lay down beside a pizza to see if you can eat it? That's ridiculous. Call me if you ever do that."

"What if your snake eats one of your cats?!"
"Have you met my cat? It's a psycho. I'd never let that thing around my harmless snake, are you kidding? My snake would be like: 'The heck is that thin--AHHHH!'"

"Do you let your snakes roam around the house?"
"Of course? How else is he supposed to get to the fridge and make himself something if he's hungry?"

"Does it bite?"
"You could try to get it to bite, if you really wanted to. You'd have to start by rubbing this dead rat all over your hand first, though... which is weird, but hey if you want to give it a try you're more than welcome."


I always follow-up my humor or comments with educational reasoning behind it, but I've found that the humor quickly dispels any resentment towards the snakes, or anger a person may have. If they are still angry after an explanation, then there was nothing I could've said to change their mind and I don't waste anymore time worrying about it.

Some of my biggest critics have become some of my biggest spokesmen amongst my friends. "You HAVE to come over and see her snakes!! No, they're awesome! I used to be scared but they're actually really cool! You have to check them out"

"What the Hell is wrong with you?!"

I got that unexpected one today, and no, I am not happy about it.

The biggest question I get is how do they mate. Followed by why do they have 2 penises lol. It's always an interesting convo

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I had a great, educational session with our neighbors last night. We have new neighbors that I had been talking to, in our driveway, about my boa and brought her out to show them. While we were talking about snakes and looking over my snake, our neighbors on the other side of us came out to check her out. They touched her, the granddaughter held her and they asked a ton of questions. They were so interested (and surprised that I have snakes) that they wanted to see my ball python. They thought that both are beautiful and interesting. And to think I was worried about the neighbors finding out that I had snakes (for all of the reasons above this thread - I feared that somebody would freak out about the big, bad, scary snakes).

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Originally Posted by distaff

"What the Hell is wrong with you?!"

I got that unexpected one today, and no, I am not happy about it.

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I've had that one as well. My favorite reply is, "Me? Well, I'm a normal person who happens to believe that not all pets have to have four legs and fur to be enjoyed. You on the other hand, seem to be a paranoid nutcase who watches way to much TV. Maybe I should rethink being around you, you might be dangerous."

Gale

Funny story: soon after getting Cake, one of my producers who apparently hates snakes immediately proceeded to tell me the recent news about a guy kissing his pet cottonmouth on the mouth, and getting bitten in the face. He showed me a video of the guy at the same time and kind of just waited for my reaction.

Yeah, ball pythons are totally a venomous species and I would need to care. :colbert:

A few minutes after that, one of my coworkers asked me in a VERY serious way, "Have you seen the movie Anaconda?"

Me: "No..."

Coworker nods gravely, "You should see it."

Because my 5 foot ball python is totally an anaconda and watching a hollywood stereotype is going to suddenly make me hate snakes, as if I'm not aware of what kind of animal they are?

(spamming more stories- I'll show myself out now.)

I've mentioned before but I had a neighbor once freak out over my tiny pet garter snake as a kid. Started all kinds of drama in the neighborhood. She automatically assumed I was keeping some child eating monster in my room when I was 10. Blamed me for her missing cat. Fear and ignorance makes people stupid.

And just the other day my mother asked me to make sure my ball python wasn't venomous.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by redshepherd

Funny story: soon after getting Cake, one of my producers who apparently hates snakes immediately proceeded to tell me the recent news about a guy kissing his pet cottonmouth on the mouth, and getting bitten in the face. He showed me a video of the guy at the same time and kind of just waited for my reaction.

Yeah, ball pythons are totally a venomous species and I would need to care. :colbert:

A few minutes after that, one of my coworkers asked me in a VERY serious way, "Have you seen the movie Anaconda?"

Me: "No..."

Coworker nods gravely, "You should see it."

Because my 5 foot ball python is totally an anaconda and watching a hollywood stereotype is going to suddenly make me hate snakes, as if I'm not aware of what kind of animal they are?

(spamming more stories- I'll show myself out now.)

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I love both of my snakes but not too sure about kissing either of them! Can you imagine that your snake mistakes your bad breath for some sort of food and chomp! Explain that to your family, friends and coworkers (I cannot imagine what my wife would say or do or when I would ever hear the end of it - she loves to tell people about all the stupid stuff I do, none of the good stuff!). Also I've seen Anaconda but not sure that I've seen all of it - stupid movie but if you like Jennifer Lopez...

I don't tell people I have snakes usually. Its my business what I keep for a pet. The important thing when dealing with these questions is to not be defensive. People only know what they know. You can just give them the facts, educate and then whatever they do from there is their business. If you get defensive or feel insulted by peoples presumptions about snakes then you are only going to reinforce their opinion that you are a weirdo for keeping them. If you keep rational and educate, that's when you can effect people's opinions for the better.

Oh, I work at Petco so people are nasty with me all the time. I'm often told serpents are the devil and that I'm going to Hell...oh, not to mention that apparently my 3ft Ball Python is going to eat my 7lb chihuahua. LMFAO

If you wanna step inside, pay admission at the door...
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I find it funny how I react when I meet a fellow herper - it's like you can't stop talking snakes! I am a bit cautious about who I talk to about my pets but also educational. You can't change everybody and a lot will still cringe but I get a lot of questions (after a bit of debriefing) that actually are intelligent. A young guy at work said that he thought that I was cool because I play guitar (not very well but he doesn't need to know that!) and I told him what was cool was my pets. I think he has a whole new view of me now. I also tell people if they want to know about or handle a snake to come see me. They know, from working with me, that I would not do so If I wasn't comfortable with the visit.

I just recently acquired my first Ball Python, and the nasty comments I've been receiving on Facebook have been astonishing and eye opening... I posted this little blurb and I can now post pictures of Noodles in peace!

"Regardless of how you feel about someone else's pets, whether they be reptiles, amphibians, arachnids, rats, or even cats and dogs, please show some respect. It's NOT OK to make jokes about killing them, saying how disgusting you think they are, or behaving as though they have a contagious disease... I completely understand that people have fears and phobias and are completely entitled to their own opinions, but please remember that these animals, no mater how odd, unusual, or weird, are our beloved pets."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by danipanda

I just recently acquired my first Ball Python, and the nasty comments I've been receiving on Facebook have been astonishing and eye opening... I posted this little blurb and I can now post pictures of Noodles in peace!

"Regardless of how you feel about someone else's pets, whether they be reptiles, amphibians, arachnids, rats, or even cats and dogs, please show some respect. It's NOT OK to make jokes about killing them, saying how disgusting you think they are, or behaving as though they have a contagious disease... I completely understand that people have fears and phobias and are completely entitled to their own opinions, but please remember that these animals, no mater how odd, unusual, or weird, are our beloved pets."

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Good blurb. I actually posted a similar one on facebook awhile ago too.

And same, I was astonished by how people react to our snakes! I thought people were smarter than that today, with all this information/internet at hand, but I was wrong.

Housing snakes with birds sounds like risky business, but if the snakes aren't of a species that eats birds, and the birds aren't inclined to kill them, then what's the harm?

My brother and I had a dog that he was told when he rescued him hated cats. They specifically said at the shelter, don't house this dog with cats he will kill them. Well a little over a year after he brought home the dog I begged him for a cat (I was fourteen) and he brought a kitten home. It took a couple months but we were able to supervise their interactions and teach them to get along. Our dog lived with the cat (and others!) for over a decade with no harm done.

Yes, there's a risk but it's your risk to take and you're not putting the animals together specifically to pit them against each other. Everybody's full of their own opinions. As long as your not hurting anyone they can buzz off.

I got a pomeranian puppy a few years ago and someone made the comment that my snake would eat my puppy. I just told him that my snake was only big enough to eat rats and that my puppy was well over the size of a rat. I also have people tell me that they'd never allow their kids around someones snake. I tell them that I'd never leave my kids alone with a chihuahua, as they are the only dogs that have ever bitten me.

I had to check this thread out... I was wondering why you were making comments about a snake's vent! haha

I'm always amused by the stuff people say about me having pet snakes. My family is probably the worst. My mom is a spanish catholic and thinks snakes are from the devil. One of my aunts has a phobia of snakes. Both of my aunts and my mom say they're not coming to my house to visit now. My uncle keeps teasing me about them eating my kittens. I'm like really? They can barely swallow mice, let alone a kitten. My female bp is still on rat pinkies. My friends and coworkers have been really cool about it. They like to see pictures, and now some of them are considering getting one. I haven't gotten any bad comments from my Facebook other than my family. And they're not being hateful, just kidding around. They still respect me and know I love all animals. I used to want to be a vet and grew up watching animal planet, so they're not really surprised. I think it would be neat to go to schools as an ambassador.

I do get annoyed when someone says some crap like "your snakes will get out and eat your neighbors' dogs!"

a ball python would have a hard time eating any dog other than maybe a newborn Chihuahua.

When people tell me, "if you ever bring that snake around me I'll kill it..."

I heard about a guy who pranked his girlfriend with a little baby ball python that he borrowed from a friend.

He placed it in the bed with her and watched her wake up to it horrified. While he was laughing she had killed it in her panic. Needless to say the actual owner of the snake was not amused, though I think he should take partial blame for allowing his pet to be put in that situation.

Poor baby BP... it didn't deserve that at all. Story still makes me angry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tash

When people tell me, "if you ever bring that snake around me I'll kill it..."

I heard about a guy who pranked his girlfriend with a little baby ball python that he borrowed from a friend.

He placed it in the bed with her and watched her wake up to it horrified. While he was laughing she had killed it in her panic. Needless to say the actual owner of the snake was not amused, though I think he should take partial blame for allowing his pet to be put in that situation.

Poor baby BP... it didn't deserve that at all. Story still makes me angry.

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Terrible :(

That story just has stupid written all over it. Pure Redneck Stooopid.

Anytime you mix a human phobia with a live animal, you're just asking for trouble.

A lot of my coworkers had that kind of reaction when they found out I was getting my first snake last April. One of them was all 'just wait til it wraps around your neck!' and all I said was 'And what? Give me a massage, they're not strong enough to actually cut off the airflow in the first place.' 'Why not just get a dog?' "I live in a small apartment and don't have a space for the kinds of dogs I like... Not only that but that little snake will outlive any breed of dog and is more than happy just to flop and watch a movie with me."

The key to a lot of the negative comments is indifference with tidbits of true information. Usually when someone hears that most snakes will outlive their dogs they start asking more questions like what do they eat and how often do you feed them, how big they get, ect. One of my coworkers is actually considering letting her husband get a royal because he loves snakes after I was talking with her about mine and just how nice he was. Until he gets fed a half hour late, then he gives me attitude, lol.