Ball Pythons And Animal Welfare

[Skyrivers]

Thanks for posting this article. To me it sounds like this was written by a teenager grasping at straws trying to put together a paper for his or her animal rights class in school. And I can tell for sure that whoever wrote this article never had a pet snake, in fact it sounds to me like they are afraid of snakes, maybe even terrified LOL. The best defense for anti-pet propaganda like this is education and this is what this site is here to do. Just search this forum and you'll find that just about every point in this article is wrong or consists of mistakes made by beginners who don't really know what they are doing.

Everyone here knows that ball pythons are the perfect beginner snake, diseases are pretty rare, and they almost never bite especially compared to other snakes. Most of the article is actually about their food source, it is our responsibility to raise mice and rats in the best possible conditions and euthanize them properly (and do it the legal way, typically with CO2) before feeding them to our snakes, or if feeding live use the proper sized rodent and don't leave them with the snake for more than five minutes to prevent damage to the snake.

I think along with the animal rights classes in school they should also have classes that introduce the kids to these wonderful animals so they can get some hands on experience and make their own decisions about keeping animals.

I wonder if they considered the benefits that snakes provide in general. #1 rodent population control. Snakes are great useful creatures. Not surprised they made it into our living rooms and bedrooms as a family pet. They also have great personalities. The more I spend with mine the more I love them.