Awesome point.

[Neal]

We all know that due to people's stupidity and the bliss ignorance of the media that love to portray stuff just to get ratings. This is a story that I found that was originally posted by Bill Kelly(at least that I know of). Long story short it was found in a raid in Louisiana with some guy who had a whole bunch of snakes thrown in a room together and they took them and the same exact snake that can be seen being held by two people making it appear vicious and dangerous is also seen two days later with the new foster family and in the lawn with a little girl(the parents were right there as well).

[cory9oh4]

The media ruins the truth to create a story. It bugs the hell out of me.

[Southern_Breeder]

That's awesome!

[Neal]

The media ruins the truth to create a story. It bugs the hell out of me.

I know it brother, and it's sad and it annoys the hell out of me too.

Just a little background on the story it happened in LaPlace during Hurricane Isaac. The guy was denied food stamps so he went back to the place to shoot it up because of that he was arrested. They went to his home to search his home and found a total of 13 snakes, 11 were venomous. They were taken to the snake farm in New Orleans, LA and 4 of them ended up going to the zoo.

Now the media made it seem like more and what not but I talked to somebody who actually knew the person.

Here's a link to the story:
http://www.wwltv.com/weather/hurrica...169693796.html

[Neal]

Another picture of the snake. I'm just glad he found himself or herself a good home.

[cory9oh4]

I know it brother, and it's sad and it annoys the hell out of me too.

Just a little background on the story it happened in LaPlace during Hurricane Isaac. The guy was denied food stamps so he went back to the place to shoot it up because of that he was arrested. They went to his home to search his home and found a total of 13 snakes, 11 were venomous. They were taken to the snake farm in New Orleans, LA and 4 of them ended up going to the zoo.

Now the media made it seem like more and what not but I talked to somebody who actually knew the person.

Here's a link to the story:
http://www.wwltv.com/weather/hurrica...169693796.html

"They told us there were poisonous ones in there and that they would sleep with them.

Lmao, sleeping with hots... People never seize to amaze me with the things that come out of their mouthes.

[Neal]

Lmao, sleeping with hots... People never seize to amaze me with the things that come out of their mouthes.

Yea, I know right? I would of tripped myself and accidentally headbutted the person just to see if a knock in the head cleared out some ignorance.

[NathanV]

Wow are you serious, the bending of truth disgusts me!

[treeboa]

Another picture of the snake. I'm just glad he found himself or herself a good home.

Gee, I wonder why the snake looks mean? Could it be because of the guy grabbing it by the throat and strangling it? I think I'd be struggling too!

[The Serpent Merchant]

Honestly that snake doesn't even look like it's that agitated in the pictures with the guys carrying it. It's just the nature of holding something with that much strength and mass, but show that picture to the average person and they see it as a very dangerous animal that needs to be dealt with in any way possible.

This problem is so much deeper than just the media (not that I'm defending them in any way) and it isn't just about reptiles. Biasing starts young, we find it in: TV, Movies, Books, Religion, Social Interaction, Schools, Politics, the list goes on and on. Our society has a very black and white way of teaching young children about the world. Certain things are good, and other things are bad. Instead of teaching kids how to step back and make informed decisions for themselves we force a rule book on them, and just want them to memorize information. This is so ingrained into western society that we don't even realize when we are doing it. Certain things get passed on from generation to generation, repeated lies become truths over time. Misconceptions that started out as being harmless gain critical mass and can become oppressive to certain groups of people/things. It is simply unforgivable in this information age where the answer to almost any question is just a google search away.

This biasing makes our lives as reptile keepers so much harder than it needs to be. I bet just about everybody on this site has run into at least one person who simply cannot understand what we would keep such terrible creatures as pets. Any media for us at this point is bad media. The story of the little boy who befriended a large constrictor had people claiming that the snake was just faking being nice so it could eat him in his sleep. It's always the extremes that shout the loudest, and our side is losing badly right now. For every inch we gain we lose a mile. All the media/politicians/interest groups have to do is say reptile and dangerous/invasive in the same sentence and there isn't anything we can counter with that will gain us anything with the general public. As many people here already seem to understand the best thing we can do is fly under the radar. Yes, showing people that reptiles are cool/not dangerous when handled properly is important, but it is a very slow process and it's not going to save us from the problems we are going to face as a hobby in the foreseeable future. This is compounded by the fact that our efforts to counter regulation tend to be mistargeted. How many times have we stumbled apon threads warning of some new law and part of the thread is a call to write to your local reps. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing to do anyway, many times our local reps have absolutely nothing to do with the problem at hand. Many times this is the only step taken by the vast majority of us, and that's the problem. I don't claim to be a legal expert, but we need to figure out who needs to be made aware of our hobby, and the implications of overreaching regulation, and not just carpet bomb any politicians that we have contact info for.

//rant off