Quote Originally Posted by pythonminion View Post
I'll be honest with you guys, I do believe that, unfortunately, the snake did do it. I also believe this is a horrible freak incident, and will probably never happen again.
It's a horrendous tragedy though. The guy who we're calling a molester said these were like his own children. Their mother was his best friend. Why the *bleep* would anybody kill their best friend's children? Hell, even he's grieving, and he probably feels guilty. And now everybody else is shoving him around. I don't about you guys, but if I were him, I'd be depressed as hell. He probably wants to kill himself.
And think about this- I'd rather have this reptile associate be considered a klutz who messed up real bad rather than a child molester. Because what does that do for the rest of us in the viewpoint of the non-reptile public? That will reinforce the belief that we're all wierdos with tattoos and piercings (not like those are bad though) who go around molesting children and being creepy people. At least he shows that anybody associated with reptiles has emotion too.
And I feel bad for the mother too. Losing your children, then hearing about it again and again all over the internet and the TV. Lord have mercy.
And I'd rather hope the kids, if they ever awoke, saw a snake suffocating them than somebody who they thought of as their own pseudo-dad. Because seeing someone you trust killing you as your last memory is awful.

In the mean time, we have to step out of denial. The snake probably did kill the children. We can't change the past and by saying someone else did it and that does not bring back two wonderful kids, and does not make the python uninvolved. However, don't be too defensive. The Reptile Community is NOT guilty. We just have to prove that to the non-herp public. We must show sympathy for all those involved, but we must also have damage control before we and our pets are villainized.
Why would someone kill their best friend's children? None of us sane people could answer that. But consider children are killed all the time, and often not by complete strangers, but by people they knew and trusted, their own siblings, their own parents. Out here there was recently a case where a young boy was reported missing. His body was found in a shallow grave in the backyard of the very home he lives in. Turns out his own brother (step-brother) killed him, and the victim's mother helped cover up for him. There are many other cases of family members, including siblings and parents, killing their own children. There are a lot of sick people in this world, and the scariest part is you can't always readily identify them. Some of the worst people out there are also the coolest cats you'll ever meet, extremely manipulative. That's how they are able to commit their crimes. If just any one could pick them out from a crowd, they'd be reported long before they could do any harm.

As for trying to save our hobby... too late. Snakes have already been villainized. The media has already convinced people snakes are killer animals out to hunt us down and kill us. Society already believes each and every single one of us who chooses to keep a snake is some kind of psychopathic freak who needs to be locked up in the mental ward. We can try to change some minds, but it's probably not going to matter much. The vocal members of our society are out there trying to take our snakes away from us.