Once again Billy has proved he is ignorant!

[chris4554]

Yes he told everyone that watched his show how the snake would be 23ft long but he was going to keep it anyway. And the lady had a random cage to keep the mouse in. Idiot... lol

[SpartaDog]

I want to see a ball python big enough to "eat your dog", as he put it. That thing wasn't even big enough to eat the woman's rabbits. I also want to see a ball python with round pupils. Especially since, yknow, you can't see most of their pupils unless they're blue-eyes.

And then his mom went off about how she doesn't want a snake in the house and she'll kill him herself.....I think the only true information on the entire episode was when she said "What an idiot."

Funny thing is I tried to talk to A&E to complain....and there's no "contact us" button on their website. :/

[SpartaDog]

I just found the Vexcon website and sent them a message on this subject. Doubt it'll work, or even that they'll read it, but it can't hurt.

"I recently watched an episode of Billy the Exterminator in which Billy answered a call about a woman who had a snake in her house, as well as a couple of pet rabbits.

The search was done very well and properly, considering the risk of the snake being venomous. However, upon finding the snake and discovering that it was a python, Billy's facts went downhill.

First, he said that pythons can grow to 23 ft. While this is true of reticulated pythons, the snake in question was a ball python, which maxes out at about 6 ft and averages about 4 - 5 ft. Second, he continued to treat the snake as dangerous. The larger pythons such as reticulated and Burmese can indeed be dangerous, but ball pythons are not. Ball pythons are one of the most popular pet snakes and are especially suitable as pets for first-time snake owners. If they were so dangerous, this would not be the case. Third, when the woman asked how to tell if a snake is venomous, he said the python was not because it had round pupils rather than slitted. Most ball pythons have black irises, so it is very difficult to see the pupil, which are in fact slits, as are those of all pythons. He ended the segment with a statement somewhere along the lines of "Right now he was just feeding on mice, but it's good we got him now before he's feeding on your dog." As I said before, ball pythons only reach about 5 feet and are in no way capable of eating a dog. In captivity they rarely eat anything larger than a medium feeder rat.

As a snake owner (a ball python owner, in fact), this false information concerns me greatly. Snakes already have a poor (though misguided) image in the public eye, and many people would not hesitate to kill one on sight, especially if they fear they are dangerous. The information that Billy gave made the ball python out to be much more dangerous than it actually was. Though I'm sure it brings in ratings, this will do nothing to help snakes' reputation and may even encourage more people to kill snakes. It also gives snake owners a bad name. So many people think I am crazy, or childish, etc etc when I tell them I own snakes. If people continue to think that all our animals are dangerous (which neither of my two snakes are), it only causes more of a hassle for us reptile keepers who actually know what we're doing.

It's incorrect information like this that brings about laws such as HR669, which aimed to ban all exotic pets including reptiles, and the new law in San Francisco that bans all pets in general except fish. I'd appreciate it in the future if the information in the show was more accurate and species-specific.

Thank you in advance, and if possible, I'd love to hear a response.

- Christina Jacob"

[rabernet]

Christina,

That was an excellent letter - factual and not emotional! I hope you hear from them!

[SpartaDog]

Thanks. If you had my English teacher, you'd understand why I've gotten so good at writing like that. XD