WTH!must see! - VERY graphic picture warning

[rabernet]

I hate the "the sky is falling" reaction that this photo always generates. I also hate that people use it as propoganda not to feed live, and that it's an example of "here's what can happen to your snake if you feed live!!!!!!! ZOMG!!!!"

That's why Jerhart said "worst thread ever".

I feed live. Always have. I've fed over 15K live prey off. I've NEVER, EVER had anything more significant than a mild scratch. Do I supervise each and every feeding. Nope - not at all. I have 50 ball pythons to feed. I'm opening drawers, dropping in the rat and moving on to the next drawer.

Feeding day goes a little like this - open drawer, drop in rat, THWUMP! open drawer, drop in rat, THWUMP.

After all the snakes are fed, I go back through all the drawers to make sure that each snake has its rat wrapped or is already eating. If they haven't taken their prey yet, it's usually in a back corner grooming itself. I give each snake 30 minutes if they don't take their prey right away, and come back after 30 minutes and remove the rodent. I've NEVER EVER had a live rodent just randomly walk up to a snake and bite it in 30 minute's time, not even in an hour's time.

So, let's take my figure of 15K live feedings. Let's just pretend I've had 5 significant injuries (remember, I've had nothing more significant than a mild scratch) during those 15K feedings. That would work out to .00033% of my feedings resulting in serious injury.

Who here is going to argue that is a significant risk of injury from feeding live?

If so many ball pythons were getting mauled from live feeding similarly to the animal represented in that picture, why aren't there more pictures like that out there substantiating the claim that feeding live will result in injuries like that? Think about that. How many pictures have you seen besides that one, with that much damage, claiming that it resulted from live feeding?

That injury happened from NEGLIGENCE. NOT from feeding live prey. NEGLIGENCE.

Man - I'm really running out of pennies these days. I just have very little patience for the anti-live camp always using this photo to try to convince people that feeding live is so dangerous, when my own experience, and the experience of thousands of other keepers doesn't substantiate that proclaimed danger.