Nigel Marvin making a fool of himself on National TV

[Serpents_Den]

vertainly not a good message to send out to a society that feat these animals and to mention 50,000 wild Burmese in the Everglades. Way to go Marvin

[steveboos]

What an unbelieveable show he put on! That is amazing that he would bring really aggressive animals and other snakes directly from the wild and bring them on the show. This really makes me angry and he is definitely giving reptiles a bad rap.

[redstormlax12]

This one act could have a huge effect on our efforts. Its sad. Im really disapointed. There are so many other great example of reptiles that could have been brought on the show. Bring a ball python, a beardie, a leo, maybe a better behaved burm? and am i mistaken or did he say that burm was straight from the everglades...

[djansen]

I think people are overreacting, its a late night comedy show of course he was going for the wow factor. And yeah he got clawed by a big water monitor but the monitor was not even angry at all so it was a obvious accident. And yeah, the wild caught burm was snappy but then he handled a 21 ft retic and nobody got eaten.
sure he could have been a little better but I dont think was that big of a deal.

[Mike Schultz]

I'd go for the wow factor with a tame burm Instead of saying "look at these evil things that are 50,000 strong in the everglades" :0

[Serpents_Den]

This one act could have a huge effect on our efforts. Its sad. Im really disapointed. There are so many other great example of reptiles that could have been brought on the show. Bring a ball python, a beardie, a leo, maybe a better behaved burm? and am i mistaken or did he say that burm was straight from the everglades...

I agree about having better behaved animals for the program, the worse thing on the show was having that burm biting and striking and adding the fear factor that 50,000 aggressive burms are living wild in the Everglades.

[Mike Schultz]

And i dont claim to be a "reptile expert" like Mr. Marvin but I'm pretty sure there are better ways to handle an angry 6foot snake than dancing around frantically swinging it to and fro...

[Soterios]

Oh lighten up.

I thought it was great.

[rabernet]

This was on in the late summer/early fall, right before NARBC Anaheim. There are older threads back then discussing this when it first aired. I personally believe that during this fight, these are exactly the type of videos that we DON'T want to bring attention to by posting them onto forums. Those who would like to see this bill pass are also checking out reptile related forums, and we're just handing them more "fuel" on a silver platter.

I'd forgotten about this video myself, as it had sunken down into obscurity.

[Skiploder]

Yes, that was like a gun control advocate coming out and shooting himself in the foot.

I remember it because a few people at work asked me about in the context of "why would you keep animals like that?".

It was a spectacle and set up to be so. Bringing out a boiga dendrophilia (mangrove) should have ben the clue that this wasn't a sell on the suitability of exotics as pets.

What we need is high profile people going on shows to illustrate what wonderful captives these animals have the potential to be. Not showing off a bunch off pissed off, stressed out animals that are biting and thrashing.

Nigel should know better. He shows up at a lot of the reptile shows. Maybe someone should call him out on his poor timing and his poor display of sensationalism at our risk.

Better yet, he has shown a willingness to answer correspondence. He was called out for his inappropriate handling of a false water cobra on his show and responded to inquiries from the community:

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/gener...-responds.html

Remember folks - this is a guy who is presenting himself as a "professional". When he waltzes out on stage and shows he is not in control of the situation, it makes our beloved pets look uncontrollable and potentially dangerous.