A Bit of Reality About Owning Snakes and Raising a Family

I just got to thinking, with all this controversy over snakes and children, about the actual reality of it all. I figure my family is a good study group really so here goes a very off the cuff but I think interesting look at the actual day to day "dangers" of living with multiple snakes.....

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Study group:

1 male age 39
1 female age 47
1 female age 21
1 male age 17
1 female age 15
1 male age 8

Snakes (including lengths):

1 milksnake - 2.5 feet
4 boas - ranging from 4 feet to 9 feet
36 ball pythons - ranging from 18 inches to 5 feet

Time frame:

2005 to 2009

Now in this time frame all members of the family have interacted in some way with pretty much all snakes in an appropriately supervised manner based on the age of the participant and the length, temperment and activity being performed with the snake (i.e. feeding, cleaning, weighing, handling for pleasure, handling for maintenance purposes).

In this time frame the following bites have occurred:

Bites from adult snakes:

1 bite to the 39 year old male by 1 adult female ball python - unknown cause, likely fear/stress reaction

1 bite to the 39 year old male by 1 adult female boa - snake was in shed, bite was extremely minor far below the full ability of this snake to inflict bite damage

1 bite to the 47 year old female by 1 adult female ball python - a recent rescue that was highly stressed at the time

0 bites to any of the minor children

Bites from juvenile/hatchling snakes*:

5 bites to the 39 year old male

10+ bites to the 47 year old female

0 bites to any of the minor children

*of note in these stats is the fact that the highest percentage of these bites were from very recently hatched ball pythons, that all bites or bite attempts failed to break the skin of the human involved and that most if not all bites were simply the instinctive and protective reaction of a very young snake unsure of it's own safety in an unfamilar environment*

Now let's look at a slice of the reality of life in a busy family of 2 adults and 4 children.

In this same time period, by my best recollection, the following occurred ( a VERY small sampling in actuality):

At least 3 incidents where the 8 year old child was playing with his older siblings and received some sort of bruising through rough play.

A pretty good number of darned painful papercuts that did break the skin.

5 incidents where sports related activities caused either bruising or breakage of skin requiring first aid.

1 orthopedic surgery to the 21 year old female related to a major sports injury to her hand.

1 major burn to the 21 year old female resultant from an assault in a public place.

10 or more minor burns to the 47 year old female as a result of normal kitchen/food preparation activities.

20 or more skin breaking scratches from play involving minor children and family pets (both dog and cat but NOT reptiles).

4 incidents where the 47 year old female was injured due to excessive strain on her lower back due to heavy housework activities or moving/relocation of family.

3 emergency room visits for the 39 year old male due to very serious drug reactions to prescription medication.

5 incidents where members of this study group were knocked off their feet by an overly enthuisastic Labrador Retriever.

3 deaths have occurred in this time period though not directly to this study group but included due to impact on them - 1 grandfather, 2 grandmothers

Sooooo.....

By this very simplistic study one could draw the following conclusions:

My family really needs to train our dog better because she knocks us over and sometimes jumps up and scratches us.

That cats are dangerous because they have claws so maybe kids and cats are a bad mix.

That paper will cut you. Dangerous stuff that paper is!

That sports can be dangerous so we should keep our kids indoors and wrapped in cotton wool at all times.

That siblings can play rough so apparently they shouldn't be allowed to play together at all.

That the 47 year old female is at high risk of messing up her back and burning herself so all household and kitchen activities should immediately cease (wonder how that will fly with my family LOL).

Going out in public is very dangerous so we should all lock ourselves in at home and just stay safe! :rolleyes:

Prescription drugs can be very dangerous and you can have a reaction at any time without warning that can be fatal.

Getting old is a bad thing, you can die. Try to avoid getting old at all costs.

Apparently our snakes may be the safest things in our lives LOL.

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As much as I wrote this in a rather joking way it does speak to safety concerns regarding children in the home with or without exotic pets in it. Over the past number of years many things have occurred in our family that had some risk factor or potential for harm involved but NONE of those things directly involved our decision to include snakes in our household.

I wish somebody would do a news report on that!

Excellent!

Too funny Jo...I would guess that excluding venomous accidents, that in most cases snakes are the least of the worries in a household. We hurt ourselves far worse during regular activities than a snake ever could.

It was written really as a funny look at the reality of life and snakes in it but when you do think about it, my active family is at far more risk from just activities of daily living. Nobody wants to know that though. It's boring, it's everyday and it's not deemed newsworthy to say "well it's Friday and nothing much has occurred in the Franchino residence as far as those snakes are concerned, back to you Ted". :)

This is golden I highly recommend a sticky.

This thread gets 4.5 Balls

It would get 5 Balls but the seriousness takes away from the comedic <is that a word< (Wes) effect.

Mike

excellent post Jo. I can relate so well with your "news report". My household consists of 2 adults, 3 children, ages are 12, 4, and 2. There is one dog and 12 snakes (10 bp's, 2 corns). And to illustrate, while I am typing this the 4 and 2 year old are rough housing on the couch and have just been told to stop before someone falls off and gets hurt. see, no snakes involved. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hoax

This is golden I highly recommend a sticky.

This thread gets 4.5 Balls

It would get 5 Balls but the seriousness takes away from the comedic <is that a word< (Wes) effect.

Mike

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Yar, and an excellent use of it toooooo, Matey. Yar.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ladydragon

excellent post Jo. I can relate so well with your "news report". My household consists of 2 adults, 3 children, ages are 12, 4, and 2. There is one dog and 12 snakes (10 bp's, 2 corns). And to illustrate, while I am typing this the 4 and 2 year old are rough housing on the couch and have just been told to stop before someone falls off and gets hurt. see, no snakes involved. :D

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Heck Doris the other day my family was hurrying to get out the door to go somewhere or other. Everyone was bouncing around, grabbing shoes and so forth. Poor young Michael tried to get past me to exit the front door, I turned at the wrong time to grab my purse and basically hipchecked the poor kid right into the door handle. Got a nasty bump right near his eye too the poor kiddo.

Apparently my hips are now on the list of things dangerous to my family. :oops:

Love this--this should be posted everywhere in response to all the histrionic 'killer snake' news articles.

Perfect study there. :gj: :D

As all of us, but very few of 'them' know, most of those "killer snake" stories come about from issues of stupidity - no locks on large snake enclosures in homes with young children, idiots feeding large snakes by Hand to impress or because they don't know better, and stressed or mistreated snakes who have 'had enough' striking out at any who come too close.
If only those folks would listen to knowledgeable people's advice, there would be FAR fewer of those stories out there. :D

Maybe we all should do a similar study and then submit them all to a magazine or something. :D

Excellant post! the truth of the matter is that this is the reality of exotic pet ownership..................the issue is the perception of others............

Perception is reality...............how does one go about making reality the right perception? I have no clue what I just said there lol:)

excellent points jo...

in all seriousness, i think the one thing that needs to be looked at is that burms and retic and a couple other species really are dangerous animals. i'm not advocating a moratorium on ownership, but i think things today are getting pretty silly and out of hand. i mean, there are inherant risks with any pet... and when you take an exotic pet into ownership, the risks usually go up. going one step further, when you take an apex predator on as a pet, and don't respect it for what it is.... then you're creating a recipe for disaster... and that's all this situation was. an absolute tragedy, i couldn't even imagine.

i'm not trying to call anyone out, but i think there's a culture of ineptitude and apathy with large constrictors that is pretty alarming. from the owners all the way up to the breeders, i think the general mindset is alllllll wrong. i mean balls, boas, carpets, etc are one thing, but the difference between a ball and a retic is like the difference between owning a bengal cat and a tiger.

i'm all about letting the people govern themselves, but this event (plus having a two year old myself) has really opened my eyes further to the fact that a lot of people out there just aren't taking things as seriously as they should.

First of all-Joanna-GREAT POST!!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Colin Vestrand

i'm not trying to call anyone out, but i think there's a culture of ineptitude and apathy with large constrictors that is pretty alarming. from the owners all the way up to the breeders, i think the general mindset is alllllll wrong. i mean balls, boas, carpets, etc are one thing, but the difference between a ball and a retic is like the difference between owning a bengal cat and a tiger.

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I understand you are not pointing fingers and I agree you make some excellent points but I want to clarify that not all breeders are this way. My husband and are are burm breeders and I can assure we take that very seriously. We spend countless hours caring for our animals and while we can not control or choose who buys every animal we produce we can and do try and sell them to those who understand what they are buying is a huge commitment. We try and ask if they are aware how large these snakes can get and if they are able to care for, feed, and house them properly as they grow. We make it abundantly clear that we are available should any questions or concerns come up. We get calls from burm owners every week (whether they bought from us or not) seeking advice, asking questions, or just wanting to chat and we welcome these calls-we enjoy them. We have spent hours fighting legislation-typing emails, writing letters, making phone call. We have offered to open our home to members of Congress, representatives, senators so they can see first hand what we are fighting so hard to save. We do what we can to try and educate those do not understand the effort and time put into owning large constricotrs (or any reptile). We feel we have a responsibility to do so as burm owners.

That being said-our main focus in life is our children (we have 4) and we have always put our childrens safety and well being first and foremost. We know the power and the strength of a burmese python and have taken every precaution imaginable to ensure the snakes could never get to the children and cause them harm.

As I stated before I agree with some of what you said but it does not apply to all breeders and owners. Just wanted to clarify that.

incredible!

LOL!!! This is a hilarious thread!!!!! All housework should cease.....I like that :D

And avoid getting old at all costs! ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any pointers on how one would avoid getting old? I would pay $19.95 for a step by step tutorial. :gj:

This thread is priceless. :bow: Now if we could only make the rest of our closed minded country wake up to the fact that our reptiles are not going to hunt them all down and kill them.

thats awesome and makes a great point.

great post!

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Originally Posted by yotaman

Any pointers on how one would avoid getting old? I would pay $19.95 for a step by step tutorial. :gj:

This thread is priceless. :bow: Now if we could only make the rest of our closed minded country wake up to the fact that our reptiles are not going to hunt them all down and kill them.

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It's a 2 step process at which I have miserably failed.

Step 1

Remain single

Step 2

Have NO children

It's as easy as that.

if more snake owners read part of this forum no "accidents" would never happen with a snake, accidents like childern being consticted to death CAN BE PREVENTED by a KNOWLEDGEABLE pet owner and yall provide all the KNOWLEDGE that owners need to know sorry for the rant and if i spelled some words wrong sorry :D

I love the perspective Jo, very true and entertaining.

Another interseting point is that many reptiles are being pointed out as a danger to native species and although this may be true in isolated incidents like the everglades, the common dog and cat pets probably kill and harm more native species(as well a people) than all exotic pets combined.

The big problem is uneducated and irresponsible reptile pet owners not the animals themselves.

As Jo and Burmmama have shown when kept correctly and secure there is no threat to anyone.

The recent tragic story is about an ignorant owner who foolishly housed a large snake without a secure enclosure. Lord only knows what else this animal was deprived of.

Nice article...but...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

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Study group:

1 male age 39
1 female age 47
1 female age 21
1 male age 17
1 female age 15
1 male age 8

1 bite to the 59 year old male by 1 adult female boa - snake was in shed, bite was extremely minor far below the full ability of this snake to inflict bite damage

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59 year old male? He's diff. from the 39yrold male right? typo? just curious :D

I should post this link to our local forums...and perhaps show this to my folks (they heard about the unfortunate accident...and they were "extra relieved" when I told them that i sold my afrock coz I want to focus on dwarf retics).

:D

Thanks again for a GREAT post

Oh I did miss that typo, thanks for mentioning it - it's been fixed. :)

Raul, that's a good point about other pets and their impact on wildlife. I watched a study years ago on the BBC about how many kills your average pampered housecat was making a week. These are not feral cats or cats that even need to hunt but still do. I was blown away by the sheer numbers of kills the average cat in the study area was doing. Add to that the numbers that feral cats take down and you've got a pretty large impact on the wild bird population.

agreed. So many people "attack" pet snakes, when they fail to realize that the "conventional" pet injure/kill more people, even if you consider the numbers in ratios/percentages.

Good thing we have responsible pet keepers such as ourselves who educate the others :D

Accidents are preventable. A pet snake should not have killed a child last week. I think the owner of the snake is responsible and should be punished by law/ the court system, etc..

I did like this post. And agree with and can relate with it. I will also try not to get old or bitten by any more snakes! LOL