Burmese loose in the city

[Skyrivers]

I agree. I'd have respected him more if he just took accountability for HIS snake. HIS snake, HIS responsibility. Leave the comment about the friend out of the conversation, or at least own up to it. Accidents happen, I get that, but own it when the animal is your responsibility.

I also find it irresponsible, because of the size of the snake, that he waited 5 days to alert neighbors. I'd be pretty angry if my cat, puppy/small dog or whatever went out to pee or play and never came back, only to find out a 14 foot burm was loose somewhere in the neighborhood.

I hope the snake is found, and uninjured. The "Find it, shoot it" comment is disheartening. It's not the snake's fault...

So many things wrong here. Even the "She's had food handed to her every single day,". I agree that accidents happen. I have had an escapee before. I was frantic till I found her. How long should you wait till you start asking neighbors and then local social media? I think the second day I might start talking to my close neighbors about it and on the local facebook page for lost pets. We are a small community and help each other out when they wonder off. My local PD would also be happy to help (all 5 officers). I wonder if he looked under his own house (crawl space)?

[bcr229]

Ok, I'll admit I laughed at the WalMart one.

[zina10]

Not good.

More ammunition for the authorities that would like a outright ban on any "pet" snakes, but esp. giants or any constrictors.
More bad press. The neighbors and community would welcome and lobby for any such laws, so fighting it will be difficult.

Here is a video, apparently this news is spreading quickly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UOGNhmDC5k

[ladywhipple02]

Not good.

More ammunition for the authorities that would like a outright ban on any "pet" snakes, but esp. giants or any constrictors.
More bad press. The neighbors and community would welcome and lobby for any such laws, so fighting it will be difficult.

Here is a video, apparently this news is spreading quickly

They are especially building up the hype that a “Indianapolis zoo official” stated the snake could very well attack and eat small animals and/or children.



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[B.P.'s 4me]

So many things wrong here. Even the "She's had food handed to her every single day,". I agree that accidents happen. I have had an escapee before. I was frantic till I found her. How long should you wait till you start asking neighbors and then local social media? I think the second day I might start talking to my close neighbors about it and on the local facebook page for lost pets. We are a small community and help each other out when they wonder off. My local PD would also be happy to help (all 5 officers). I wonder if he looked under his own house (crawl space)?

Actually, my first thought was to wonder how they knew for certain it's outside. Even at fourteen ft. I'm thinking it could find a hiding spot, hunker down and be missed in a search, esp. if cold. I'm hoping the snake is found safe and well and sure wish there was a way to convince the media to put, if not a positive spin on the story, at least something that isn't so negatively biased. :-(

[CottonMouth]

It's incredible how a 14 Foot snake can just disappear, they are so skilled. Lol how does one react if they see something like that in their backyard haha?

Can you really blame the media and the Facebook/YouTube comments though? At the end of the day it's still a huge wild snake that does have the capability of killing a child, even an adult. As snake owners we know that would be very rare and highly unlikely. But they don't really know that and it is still a wild snake that may now be irritated/stressed and you just never know.

Definitely the owners fault, nothing to do with the snake but I'm just saying this as something to discuss or think about, maybe large snakes like this should require some credentials. Not something the Government can make more money on, but something to do with experience.

I'm sick of hearing about bad owners who have no business owning a particular animal and then the animal ends up paying for it or the Animal Community suffers.

[ladywhipple02]

Can you really blame the media and the Facebook/YouTube comments though? At the end of the day it's still a huge wild snake that does have the capability of killing a child, even an adult. As snake owners we know that would be very rare and highly unlikely. But they don't really know that and it is still a wild snake that may now be irritated/stressed and you just never know.

I CAN blame the media for giving only pieces of the story, twisting things so it sounds more sensational, so they can get click counts and page views and whatever else they track. Why can't they actually INFORM the public about animals like this? There were actually a lot of people asking good questions in the comments of these stories - if these animals were legal in Indiana, how someone went about caring for one, where they come from and how someone bought one, how to feed them, etc. It would be nice if, instead of just trying to get attention, the news would educate a bit. Get some information out there, not just snippets of quotes from "zoo personnel" (who could've been the freakin janitor for all we know).

A lot of people are afraid of snakes because they simply don't know about them. Education is always the first step in relieving fear, with anything.

[tttaylorrr]

"a friend" forgot to close a crate...

you are responsible, mr. benny tarplee, period. don't use your friend as a scape-goat for actions you did not take to prevent this. why was anyone even allowed to unlock a 14ft snake enclosure without you present, only to forget to lock it?? that's just...stupid!!! that's a bad snake owner! that's an irresponsible snake owner! now your snake will likely get killed or die, and you will be allowed to continue owning animals without consequence.

he adds another ugly mark onto snake owners. shame on you, benny tarplee. i hope you google your name and see this.

[tttaylorrr]

A lot of people are afraid of snakes because they simply don't know about them. Education is always the first step in relieving fear, with anything.

lol so one time i sent out a snapchat of Yellow to a bunch of contacts, and a friend replied telling me never to do that again as he has a "snake phobia." when i told him they're harmless and to just do a bit of research, he said back "what? so every time i'm scared of something i don't know i should just GOOGLE it!??!?"

i was like...well in this case, yeah.

we don't talk anymore. lol.

[zina10]

I agree, the whole "friend" thing just reeks of making excuses.

Not that this even IS a excuse. Who let's their friends mess with their snakes and their enclosures ? I wouldn't even allow that with a corn snake, much less a giant.

And I also agree that I can't really fault the public and community to be outraged and somewhat freaked out. We quickly forget how it is to have a "fear" like that. It is a very real fear to many people and imagining a 14 foot giant snake that could be hiding ANYWHERE probably causes some people some real issues. They do not know or understand snakes like we do. They know them from horror movies, from sensational news reports.

They obviously don't trust snake keepers, either, and can you fault them? Instead of taking responsibility that dude sits there on his steps barefoot with a baby snake in hand, talking about how much of a sweet heart his escaped Burm is. I'm sorry, but that is not how you do damage control. Stand up when you talk to people, offer real information (not just shes a sweetheart), offer solutions, ask for help, print out friggen info and hand it out if need be. DO SOMETHING to portray yourself and your hobby community as something else then careless idiots. Sigh..

I actually do agree that most Giants and other potentially dangerous snakes should not be able to be owned by just anyone. However, how to go about controlling that without this snow balling into a outright ban of all we love ??

I guess all we can do is keep trying to educate, to make the public aware, to proof ourselves as responsible keepers that have our own and others safety as a top priority.

News such as that is just bad. It shows the snake in a bad light and it certainly shows snake owners in a bad light.