Irrational Fear?

[Redneck_Crow]

My father was a vet of three wars and scared to death of snakes. Even a hatchling black rat snake would send him running for cover. He would rather have you take pot shots at him with a rifle than pick up a garter snake and walk toward him, and I'm not exaggerating.

I do think that most people have an inherent distrust of snakes. But there is usually more to it. In my father's case, it was reinforced to the point of nutty fear. His family lived close to a creek when he was a kid and they found numerous copperheads, so I can understand why they taught their kids to be scared of snakes. My father would actually start to sweat if he was near a snake and he wasn't afraid of much else in the animal world.

Everyone doesn't have that ingrained fear, though. From my family's accounts, I was never afraid of snakes or spiders. As a toddler I would find these fascinating creatures and bring them into the house to share with my family. In my case, seeing the reaction that they produced probably encouraged me to seek out even more of them. But then again, I was an evil child.

When I encounter someone with a fear of snakes, I refrain from feeding it. Not everyone will do it, but some people eventually get curious and want to see what it is that I "get" from keeping snakes. You can't win everyone over, but I have had a few folks who feared snakes end up holding my snakes and finding out that they aren't bloodthirsty man-eating monsters.