Home page issue

[Jenn]

Hey gang,

Just noticed we have a shot of a guy getting bit by a snake on our home page. A lot of people come visit us here. Is this really the kind of image we want on our home page?

[littleindiangirl]

Heck ya! J/k... I didn't find it offensive towards the community forum. But then again.. I like the snake bytes tv feeding.

[Freakie_frog]

Hey gang,

Just noticed we have a shot of a guy getting bit by a snake on our home page. A lot of people come visit us here. Is this really the kind of image we want on our home page?

Why should the fact that snakes bite be offensive to our visitors? This is a forum that explores all the different aspects of reptile keeping from the cute HOTM to feeding pics and issues. The fact is snakes bite, you deal with them long enough and it is just another part of owning them. No different than cat owners getting scratched or parrot owners getting bit. It really is no big deal just a part of being a snake keeper. I can see how it might see aggressive or violent but it is just a standard part of owning snakes

Good looking out though.

[Patrick Long]

Hey gang,

Just noticed we have a shot of a guy getting bit by a snake on our home page. A lot of people come visit us here. Is this really the kind of image we want on our home page?

I completely understand were you are coming from, but you have to remember, that snake is in a facility that has thousands, upon thousands of snakes. They do not get handled like your snakes. They are not really the "pet" snake that we all have.

[Jenn]

Don't get me wrong. It doesn't bother me at all. I have a bunch of snakes and cats and dogs and have never been bit myself. But I was just thinking about all the "tire kickers" who stop by to see if they may indeed get "bit by the snake bug" like we all did.

There is just so much bad press out there on snakes already without us scaring away someone before they even really understand what it's all about.

[Texas Dan]

Don't get me wrong. It doesn't bother me at all. I have a bunch of snakes and cats and dogs and have never been bit myself. But I was just thinking about all the "tire kickers" who stop by to see if they may indeed get "bit by the snake bug" like we all did.

There is just so much bad press out there on snakes already without us scaring away someone before they even really understand what it's all about.

Well, if they don't realize snakes bite before they get to this site, they shouldn't be owning snakes.

[kc261]

I totally agree with Jenn, in fact I had been thinking about making a similar post.

Yes, snakes bite. So do cats, dogs... almost any animal that is kept as a pet. But most of the time when you have a video loop that is only a few seconds long, cat people, dog people, etc aren't going to use part of that valuable time showing one of those animals biting.

I think it is worse because the person getting bitten basically panics, drops the snake, and runs away. Pat pointed out that this is a big facility where the snakes don't get handled as often and so they don't get as tame as pet snakes do. Ok... but shouldn't that also mean that the people handling them should have lots of experience and therefore be able to react more calmly?

Like Jenn said, I know snakes bite. I've been bitten by my own snake. So to me, I don't see that clip as a negative thing. But how will others see it? Especially those who don't like snakes or maybe are on the fence? When we, the herp community, have the choice of putting out a few seconds of video clip, why choose one that falls more on the "bad press" end of the spectrum? If a clip with lots of action was wanted, choose a feeding clip that isn't as slow motion as the feeding clip chosen. I don't know about the rest of you, but every time I've ever seen a snake feeding, it has struck and coiled much faster than that one. It is a cool clip because of being able to see what is happening instead of a blur, but I just mentioned this due to the "if more action was wanted" angle.

I watched a show called "The Big Squeeze" (I think) which was supposed to be all about the giant constrictors. I was tremendously disappointed that a big percentage of the time was spent on attacks on humans. While I think mentioning that it does happen and can be fatal for the human is responsible, I think devoting so much time to it blows it out of proportion and people watching it may end up with the idea that most people who own giant snakes end up either dead or at least having experienced a life threatening attack. The same is true for this little snakebytes ad... about 1/3 of it is a snake attacking a human. But that isn't 1/3 of what snakes are about. Why not choose to show more of the positive stuff?

I know the ad is something put together by snakebytestv, not bp.net. I hope they'll decide to change it.

[Freakie_frog]

When we, the herp community, have the choice of putting out a few seconds of video clip, why choose one that falls more on the "bad press" end of the spectrum?

I can totally see you point 100% bad press is not needed. However again we are a reptile forum and not a main stream search engine or news station. People that come here are interested in reptiles the majority of them being snakes. Chewy reacted the way he did because...well thats Chews I imagine it hurt.

To me it really not that big of a deal I mean if I was a visitor of a boxing forum I wouldn't be put off by a loop of some one getting KO'ed. It all part of the whole package. I'd rather them see what they were getting in to instead of getting it not understanding hey they bite and the releasing them into the wild. Now thats bad press.

Again I really don't see the problem.

[wilomn]

If I'm not mistaken, that's Brian B. getting tagged. If someone can't see the humor of that much experience getting the sharp end of the snake, they need a humor chip update.

I found it amusing. Of course, I am somewhat jaded.

Bellybites, while HIGHLY amusing, are painful, which is, in a twisted sort of way, even more funny when you consider that he should know enough not to be bitten at all.

[Inknsteel]

I also thought it looked like Brian, but I could be mistaken as I don't know him or Chewy personally. It looks like he was picking the snake up and got bit on the arm, startling him more than anything since he didn't see it coming...

As for the original issue posted, I don't see a problem with it being that this IS a reptile forum. I also kinda got a chuckle out of watching it...