Some people can change with education and appealing to their emotions/sympathy with stories of pet snakes, hatching eggs, etc... Some people just refuse to believe a word. It's frustrating.
I didn't actually realize how afraid society STILL was of snakes, and how misunderstood they still are, until I got my first albino ball python. A few months after I got him, I made a thread very similar to this one.
I've concluded that snakes as a whole are the single most misunderstood animals in the animal kingdom. I can't think of another animal where the truth about them is such a vast difference from the myths/what people genuinely believe. That even when provided with facts, they refuse to believe them and just think I'm/we're crazy. All we can try to do is continue to educate, especially those closest to us, and appeal to emotion. I've found that what helps the most is actually letting them hold a baby ball python in their hands (once they're willing to, of course).
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