I saw an episode of Fatal Attractions awhile back where this chick had like 20+ venomous in a trailer in Texas. Well her Gaboon bit her and she died. When the police entered the house to recover her body, they decapitated all the snakes in order to "match the bite marks to the ones on her body" in order to "determine what snake did it." The show also said they did it because they didn't know which snakes were venomous and which weren't. (I know I know...watching that show gets me all worked up and I really shouldn't even tune into Animal Planet...it was a moment of weakness.)
Then there was this incident a couple days ago where police were called for a domestic dispute and given the wrong address. When the officer arrived at the (wrong) address, an Australian Shepard (not a very intimidating dog) came running up to the officer and the officer shot him on the spot.
So this got me thinking. I'm thinking of creating some sort of sign (perhaps I can find someone to punch it out of tin or aluminum for me?) that states that "All Animals Contained Within the Premises are Non-Venomous and Not a Danger to Humans." Or something along those lines.
I just keep thinking that if emergency personnel came to my house (for whatever reason) I wouldn't want them freaking out when they went into the snake room. I'd probably put the sign either in the snake room or on the door leading to it.
I have name tags on all my snakes' tubs that list their species...but I also saw a craigslist ad the other day that said, "python for sale...not sure if it has its fangs." So I don't know how informative listing the species would be to someone who couldn't tell a cornsnake from a burmese.
Thoughts? Any ideas to make the wording more concise? You're more than welcome to tell me I'm being over-paranoid...
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