Do you ever mention your snakes in non-snake forums?

[Bogertophis]

There is always a post after mine that says 'Those things will get 30ft long and will kill you some day...' and that person will get a ton of 'thumbs up' clicks.

Personally, I'd rather take the chance of mentioning my pet snakes, either online or in person...because you cannot change any minds by staying silent.

Case in point: I recently had a whole new HVAC system installed on my house. There was a team of guys working on it, especially when they had to carry out the old
Trane & when they hauled in the new Carrier unit, but at all times there was at least 2-3 guys here. Mostly I observed on & off, but there was a little chit chat when it
was not a distraction, & the subject of snakes came up. (they come across many locals in their work) Turns out one guy especially was very interested, so before they
left, I showed him one of my 7' Florida rat snakes briefly (outside, it was warm weather a while back); it wasn't only him that got a big kick out of it & they took a bunch
of pictures of him holding it to show all the others they work with...now if that isn't influencing opinions, I don't know what is? So I'm all about taking that chance.

There's nothing more convincing that seeing a docile snake being handled easily & up close. These were all big strong guys too- I'm a gal & a lot smaller than any of
them, lol. Seeing is believing.

[MarkL1561]

There is always a post after mine that says 'Those things will get 30ft long and will kill you some day...' and that person will get a ton of 'thumbs up' clicks.

Back in high school I worked at a pet store. One time I had a bp out while I was spot cleaning the enclosure and this woman came up to me yelling... She was saying I was being stupid and irresponsible because I was holding a venomous snake. Yeah you read that correctly. I politely tried to correct her but she only got more angry and was certain that the bp around my neck was venomous and a danger. She ended up reporting me to the owner who also tried to explain to her but she was so ridiculously stupid she still didn’t listen and left. Albeit this case was an extreme example, but similar reactions happen all the time. The majority of people are ignorant as far as animals/biology/ecology and just don’t care enough to educate themselves. When they’re told they’re wrong they don’t want to seem stupid so they stick with their false beliefs and remain ignorant. I feel that this behavior applies to pretty much everything actually. People do the same with science here in ‘merica too. Apparently everyone is a climate scientist after reading Wikipedia or worse a Trump tweet. The most you can try to do is kindly educate people but it’s useless if they’re not willing to listen/learn. Okie mini rant over haha


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[Bogertophis]

I'd still rather try to educate about snakes than to assume that all those I meet will refuse to learn, because that's just not true, & then you miss the ones who
WILL learn. And when you were in high school, you probably didn't look old enough (I'm assuming & generalizing here) to convince the occasional and
stubbornly-ignorant adult.