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  1. #21
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    Re: Do you ever take your snake out in public?

    Quote Originally Posted by DLena View Post
    I take them out into my privacy-fenced yard for a slither. My cousin just built me a pvc jungle gym for my snakes to play on, so this weekend they'll get to go to their very own "playground" for exercise and fresh air. I sure hope it works well.

    The less my neighbors know, the better off we'll all be.
    That's a cool idea! I'm sure they'll love their private "playground".

  2. #22
    BPnet Veteran dboeren's Avatar
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    Some people are afraid of snakes. So what? Some people are afraid of dogs too, but I've never seen people worried they can't take their dogs outside. I've even run into people whose dogs were clearly poorly under control and been told by the people to stay away because the dog might try to bite. THESE guys can take their animals out which are far more likely to harm and far more capable of inflicting serious hurt. Not to mention that you can technically be scared of literally anything. Hey, maybe I'll decide I'm scared of people that look a certain way, or a certain kind of car, or scared of bicycles, or anyone wearing a T-shirt with a certain picture on it. Does that give me the right to ban all these things from the outside world? Probably not. We all should be entitled to our freedoms, so long as we do not harm others.

    People may say that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I tend to believe that informed opinions are much more valid than opinions based on ignorance. We recently had a friend come to our house who didn't know I'd recently acquired a snake (she did know we had lizards and a bird). Starting out, she said that if she'd known she may not have been willing to come over. Her daughter wanted to see it, and the mom stayed about 25 feet away, about as far as possible indoors. But by the end of the visit she had come to understand that the snake was harmless and she touched it several times and commented that its skin "felt nice". We didn't force it on her, we just acted to educate and demonstrate (mainly to the daughter) and when she saw her fascination and approached the situation with a more open mind she realized it was just an animal like any other. They took a picture of her touching it to put on Facebook I think.

    Now, that doesn't mean you should push a snake or anything else on people that don't want it. Give them the opportunity to stay away if they aren't interested. I bumped into someone who was at the park with their Ball Python a couple months ago and most people just looked from afar and he was fine with that. But if someone wanted to approach and see it up close or touch it, the opportunity was there and he was ready to answer questions, etc...

    For reference, what we have is a young carpet python - almost a year old. She's roughly 3 feet long and finger-thick. I have no plans to take her sightseeing in public but I may take her to the front lawn to get some sun and let the neighborhood kids see her. They used to enjoy holding our Bearded Dragon and one of them has a pet Crested Gecko so I figure some of them will like to see a snake too. If someone asked me to take her to their house for their kids to see her or to bring her to a wildlife education event I'd be open to that too but in any of these situations I would remain in control and make sure everyone could stay at a level of exposure that was comfortable to them. I would also try to be careful about the snake's comfort and cut it short if she started behaving in a stressed manner. For instance, since she did get more handling than usual when our friends came over, I made sure to leave her strictly alone for the rest of the day and the next to make sure she would feel secure and kept an eye out for any changes in her normal behavior. Once I saw there were none, I felt free to resume normal occasional handling.

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  4. #23
    Registered User Aste88's Avatar
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    Snake rattles college graduation
    http://abcnews.go.com/US/snake-rattles-college-graduation/story?id=47437752


    Unfortunately we can't really compare our pets with more common ones. You can actually get a fine for public disturbance in my country and there's been cases of people just walking around with their pet snake ending up on the newspaper with article like "snake terrorize town".
    3.10 ball python(banana spider moj enchi, lavander, spider leopard, dreamsicle, 2 pied, bumblebee, pinstripe, butter pastel, superpastel, pastel, pastave, het dreasmicle)
    1.1 boa c. imperator (albino, hypo)
    1.2 carpet python (zebra, jaguar, jungle)
    2.2 burmese python (hypo, pearl, dwarf hypo, dwarf)
    0.1 brazilian rainbow boa
    1.1 hognose (albino, tiger anaconda)
    1.1 california king (albino, chocolate stripe)
    1.1 mexican black king
    1.1 corn (caramel)
    1.1 honduran milk (albino, hypo)
    0.0.1 green tree python
    0.0.1 argentine tegu

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  6. #24
    BPnet Royalty Zincubus's Avatar
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    Do you ever take your snake out in public?

    Quote Originally Posted by Dutti View Post
    Snake safety first. Make sure it's allowed where you live to take the snake in public. Because you always might meet an idiot or ignorant person who might call the police or someone claiming that his or her kids are in danger even if the snake was a ball python. There are snake haters, don't give them a chance.


    You make some good points !

    I recall in my early days being so proud of my quickly growing collection of snakies - I started to tell / brag to anyone and everyone UNTIL a couple of people reacted really negatively and it tought me a valuable lesson !
    Last edited by Zincubus; 05-18-2017 at 12:36 PM.




  7. #25
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    Re: Do you ever take your snake out in public?

    This may just be me, but I really don't put much credence in the "but someone might react badly" reasoning. It smacks of respectability politics; someone may react badly to me myself, how I present myself and broadcast my identity. I don't think encouraging ignorance by hiding our pets and hobbies away is necessarily a good thing. Some people can't be taught, that's true, but others can, and it becomes easier if they see you handling what they think is a dangerous animal comfortably and with a smile, and see your passion for these animals. I don't mean to say that I think every snake owner should make a habit of roaming the streets with their collection, running an unpaid education show, that would be absurd. But I don't think fear of social backlash should be the primary reason not to take your snake for a short walk every now and then.

    Obviously the safety of the animal has to come first, we can't ignore it for the sake of our egos as owners. If a situation or setting feels too dangerous, if there's a gut feeling telling you that someone will overreact and attempt to harm your snake, then don't engage there. Trust your gut, take precautions, and if you're not comfortable with the idea then there's no reason to do it. Education and forwarning are your best friends; if it seems like it's necessary, shoot the local cops an email asking if they think it would be a safety issue to have a small, nonvenomous, tame snake handled in a local park. I don't know if it would work, I've never tried it, but it seems like a good idea to head off any unpleasant confrontations. And if they say no, don't do it, then that's that and the decision's been made for you.

    I apologize if this seems a bit impassioned, but I care deeply about education and I believe that fear out of ignorance is never a good thing to let go uncorrected.

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  9. #26
    BPnet Veteran LightningPython's Avatar
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    I do take my snakes out to shows for public display and handling. I do it with my local reptile group that i am a part of. We have public liability insurance as well as each member having their own performing animals liscence. The snakes are not out all day, they are kept individually in display vivariums with substrate from their vivs at home as well as their own hides and heat source. Each viv is cleaned with F10 before and after the show. The reptiles are out with 30 minute handling sessions before they go back in for a hour (or longer) cooldown. And the shows only last a day, and we rotate the animals around from each show, so a snake only goes to say two out of 10 a year. We do this only to educate people, I've had so many kids come up, really scared of snakes to then having cuddles with the Burmese. It's pretty cool to see them overcome the fear.
    I wouldn't want to take one of my snakes down out in public outside of doing a event with my group. Too much could go wrong, and it only takes one person to sue if the snake ends up biting and i wouldn't be covered, or even worse some nutter to try and steal it.
    However, i do sometimes take my snakes into my garden, where it is fully in my property to have some free time on the grass. Even so, they are still under strict supervision.

    Edit
    Forgotten mention that when the public are handling, they also use disinfectant before and after and inbetween handling the animals to reduce the risk of disease transfer between everything too
    Last edited by LightningPython; 05-18-2017 at 06:35 PM.
    Snakes:
    ~Ball Pythons: 1.0 Spider (Corkii) --- 1.0 Mojave (Meeko) --- 1.0 Bumblebelly (Pringle) --- 0.1 Normal (Fraggles) --- 0.1 Lesser Enchi (Khaleesi) --- 1.0 Pied (Piper)
    ~Cornsnakes: 0.1 Tessera.het Amel Motley (Twiglet) --- 1.0 Amel (Wotsit)
    ~Hognose: 0.0.1 Normal.66%hetAlbino (Waffle)
    ~Boa: 0.1 Normal (Medusa)
    ~Spotted Python 0.1 (Unnamed)
    ~Bredlis Python 0.1 (Unnamed)
    ~Burmese Python: 0.1 Granite (Skittles)
    Lizards:
    ~Crested Geckos: 1.0 Buckskin Dalmatian (Rex) --- 0.1 Orange Dalmatian (Apollo) --- 1.1 Harlequin (Cosmos / Nova) --- 1.0 Extreme Harlequin (Dino) --- 1.1 Halloween Partial Pin (Pumpkin/Unnamed) --- 1.0 Red and Cream partial pin (unnamed)
    ~Leopard Gecko: 1.0 Hypo (Dave)
    ~Bearded Dragon: 0.1 Red Leatherback.hetTrans
    ~Ackie Monitor: 0.0.1 (Unnamed)
    ~Jewled Lecarta 1.0 (Wizard)
    Others:
    Tortoise, Dog, Tarantulas, Parrot

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  11. #27
    BPnet Senior Member GoingPostal's Avatar
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    No. I've taken my ball to a couple small school educational type situations when asked to but they don't go roaming the neighborhood. Neither do my cat, ferrets, rats, fish or iguana. I don't see any pro to it, if people want to get to know snakes go to a zoo, read a book, hit the pet store. Way too many PETA types and crazies for me to risk the safety or legality of my animals.

    2.0 Python brongersmai
    1.1 Python breitensteini
    1.0 Python curtus
    1.0.1 Python regius
    1.0 Acrantophis dumerili
    1.0 Boa constrictor
    0.1 Heterodon nasiscus nasiscus
    0.0.1 Pantherophis guttatus

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  13. #28
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    Re: Do you ever take your snake out in public?

    Quote Originally Posted by dboeren View Post
    I bumped into someone who was at the park with their Ball Python a couple months ago and most people just looked from afar and he was fine with that. But if someone wanted to approach and see it up close or touch it, the opportunity was there and he was ready to answer questions, etc...
    I currently don't have a snake, but if I'm lucky I may be able to get one soon, but this reminded me of the first time I actually realized that people having snakes as pet was a thing. I was like 12 and my uncle called my sister and I outside and there was a group of kids mabye a few years older then us with skateboards, that's all I really noticed about the because my eyes landed on a something that was wrapped around one of the boys neck it was a snake. My sister just stared at it but I was intriged he had a snake and that was like the awesomest thing i had even seen, side note I had seen a snake once before at a camo type thing they had reptiles and stuff I only really remembered the snake from that though 😅, anyways I just thought that it was the coolest thing ever that someone could.have a snake as a pet the kid let me pet the snake and then they left. So I don't actually have a snake so I'm not really one to talk but if I had never encountered that kid who took his snake out in probably wouldn't know that snakes were an option for a pet

  14. #29
    BPnet Senior Member Lord Sorril's Avatar
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    Re: Do you ever take your snake out in public?

    About a year ago I was carrying a BP around my house when my mailman showed up with a package.
    "What is that?" he asked.
    'A Ball Python' I replied casually.
    "Python huh? Y'know those things are eating alligators in Florida..."
    'Thanks...I'll remember that...'
    "No, seriously they are eating all the native wildlife, and the dogs and cats-"
    'This is a Ball Python, a different species, they do not-' I tried to interrupt.
    "...and every now and then they kill and eat small children..." he carried on...and on...growing more and more fervent and self-righteous.

    Luckily I just closed my door.
    I do not think I will be bringing any of my snakes into a public place...not anytime soon...
    *.* TNTC

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  16. #30
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    I take my lizards out for weekly sunning. When my bp is big enough, I plan to take him out to get the mail and maybe hang outside by the porch now and then. I don't take any of them, including a friendly bearded dragon, to public outings. Not for the reason it would scare people, because my pets' safety comes first and I would care less what anyone think of them.

    I also have 2 pitbull mixes at home, so I know firsthand what it is like to hear snark remarks about my dogs, how one of them would attack a customer (My dog passed her Canine Good Citizen ahead of her class) at a local Home Depot where we were welcomed with our dogs, to see owners panic and immediately pick up their small dogs upon seeing us walk by, etc.... I take DOGS who are trained, leashed and well behaved in public, and still get this backlash. Educating the ignorant by bringing an animal society looks down on is like talking to a wall. I had arguments, debates... Or simply, I walk away in silence, that still changes nothing. I find that the responsibility for anyone who wants to be enlightened about reptiles or anything else would fall on themselves. I can't imagine living in fear of something not worth being afraid of.

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