Colorado man dies after bite from Gila monster he illegally kept as a pet

[BeansTheDerp]

Not only that, but the non-reptile-informed public just gets the impression that all reptile keepers are irresponsible. When these accidents are the only ones making the news, the impact is unfairly magnified, & you're right, that leads to bans of everything. Because people (including law enforcement) aren't able to tell venomous from non-venomous, so in their mind it comes down to "let's make them all illegal"- that's their answer, & admittedly, there are over 5000 species, so it IS hard to tell what's safe for anyone not an expert. Heck, even some experts have, in the past, been fooled & killed by species they thought were harmless.

Add to this the bans on live educational programs with reptiles that some states have been passing- heaven forbid that people even learn about harmless reptiles? But they can go online & be influenced by the reckless show-offs. I don't see this as ending well.

"Because people (including law enforcement) aren't able to tell venomous from non-venomous, so in their mind it comes down to 'let's make them all illegal'-"

That totally makes me think of a school, I know it is technically off topic but it brings more to your point of people being stubborn about reptiles and differences. I was able to bring Beans there to "practice" programs. I was able to teach people about him and snakes (some people got over their extreme phobias of snakes with his help). In the process I could get better at speaking about him and get him used to it as well while minimizing stress by making his appearances very rare and taking all your other program precautions like limits and how long the snake is out of the carrier. There was no problem and everyone loved him being there but then a lady who worked there one day a week was scared of him and convinced the whole admin team, on her behalf, that he was a danger. I was told he needed to be kept in his carrier at all times except for in one class, which was being done already. Then suddenly he was banned from the school entirely for being dangerous (he obviously isn't and never bit or harmed a soul except for maybe hers... maybe he looked at her funny) and a threat to those with allergies. Apparently the same lady introduced a new idea to wipe out all animals from the school because of allergies, but hypoallergenic animals were still banned because they didn't want arguments about what is or isn't hypoallergenic which is not something exactly... debatable. It shows the lengths people go to for their own fears, and the laziness of some people to learn things or get over that fear.