If you back up and read it again, there was nothing said about a snake striking a hand held prey item. I don't know the behavior of the other poster's animal, but I DO know the behavior of my own.
While it may seem like a bad judgment call to you, the fact is that the behavior of an individual animal can be learned. From there, accurately predicting what that animal will do in a given situation becomes fairly simple. If you can use that knowledge to demonstrate things like this, like pythons showing recognition of people and taking food from their hands, you allow people to see that they're not dumb, dangerous animals. Far from being reckless, it shows what can be accomplished when you take the time to get to know an animal, respect its intelligence and develop some trust.
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