SNAKE ATTACK in our classrooms!!!!!

[marct]

I'm not attempting to flame the person who start this thread.

Elaborate please. I'm not sure what you meant by that.

[CoolioTiffany]

I must say I am impressed... I have never held a burm before but I did not know they were so strong they could squeeze the blood out of a tree...

Now, I don't normally laugh at things on the internet to often (such as videos that are supposed to make you laugh really hard), but this really did make me laugh.

[blackcrystal22]

If everglades are the perfect habitat for them why arent they native to that area, and why did so many freeze to death a few months ago.

Though I agree, please understand that many of the native wildlife in the everglades took a big toll as well. Like the endangered manatees in particular.

[WingedWolfPsion]

The Burmese python is the new Chuck Norris.

[nonrandomhero]

I think that most of those facts may be true, except the pet owners releasing them.... bad pat owners aren't isolated to Florida, if it was pet owners then we would find these guys all over the place... it is the perfect habitat, and they are on top of the food chain, there probably are thousands...... so what. to my knowledge there hasn't been one reporting of one of these guys ever attacking a human in the everglades. even if they aren't "native" the environment is well suited for them and they have adapted to that, i dont see the major issue here, yeah a few may creep out to urban areas, so take preventative measures. im not sure how many are there but ive heard as many as 10 per acre of land, and still wildlife flourishes in the everglades and these snakes are simply an example of that

[jjmitchell]

Though I agree, please understand that many of the native wildlife in the everglades took a big toll as well. Like the endangered manatees in particular.

I understand there were several native species die during the cold spell, I was trying to explain that florida seems to have a severe(for that area) cold spell every few years (during el nino which can occur every 2-7 years) happened last time. El nino In florida tends to cause more dramatic cold snaps. In Southeast asia there are no weather patterns that show temps dropping below 80 hardly ever and not for extended periods of time. I actually did some looking at the weather history for both regions for both places before making that comment.

[Rockstar Reptiles]

A few opinions:

First off, to say that many owners can't handle them, as much as I'd love to say is false, in my experience it is not. It is absolutely true. MANY people that get a burm or retic or even an anaconda fall into one of two categories:

A. Not educated on the animal and don't know what their getting into

B. Getting the animal for the mere purpose of being "hard" and "cool" without any real appreciation for the animal. Both of those things often result in unwanted pets and pets being dumped (or kept in fish tanks with flimsy lids and escaping). Note, I am not saying ALL or even MOST, but MANY of the owner; and my belief is that much of the blame needs to lie with the pet stores and breeders that will willingly over-sell and over-produce these
animals with out any real emphasis on educating or screening the customer.

Also, the misinformation on these animals never stops astounding me. I watched a special on Animal Planet, a supposed scientific based TV station, stating that after just 2 years a Burm can be a 15 foot behemoth capable of eating a human! What are they feeding to get those growth rates!? Also, if only 21 have been caught then how are there 150,00 of them out there?

The biggest threat these articles pose is that they continue to fuel the fire to legislation to ban snakes. Regardless of how harmful they are and how many there are, even if it is NOT overstated (obviously it is) a ban on a national level is ridiculous, unprecedented, and if it happens is more logically applied to a mammal that is actually capable of surviving and breeding in most American environments. I don't know one place outside of the everglades where something like a burm, or retic, or even ball python is likely to survive in the US; so why ban on that level. Not to mention that house cats have a far larger environmental impact than introduced snakes, and by the way they cause a more immediate threat to the public health and safety as well!

The sad truth is that logic rarely triumphs over emotion, and the natural emotions toward snakes are negative.

[chapskis1]

Heck even here in MN we have 2 types of Venomous snakes right where I live. (+2 points to who know the answer to this LOL!)

The Timber Rattlesnake and the Massasauga Rattlesnake. Although good luck finding either of them -- especially the latter.

** And no, I didn't google the answer -- I knew it!

[wolfy-hound]

Also, the currant issue of Reader's Digest has a similiar article against "exotic pets" including the "20 people have been killed by pythons since 1980" touting that as a reason to ban all pythons as pets. I'm guessing the author MUST be ready to ban all pet dogs too, seeing as they kill that many people PER YEAR.

I threw the Reader's Digest into the trash so hard I knocked over the can and had to spend ten minutes picking up the garbage and cursing Reader's Digest.

[wolfy-hound]

Sorry for the Double-Post.

http://www.rd.com/government-waste-fraud/ This is the spot to tell Micheal Crowley what you think of his recent article(you should also be able to see the actual article there as well). Also you can use "contact us" to tell the edittors of the magazine to tell THEM what you think.

Sending off outraged comments might just show them that not every pet owner will roll over and die on the AR's command.