What do you make of snake-phobic people?

[icygirl]

I'd like to survey the crowd around here about what everyone thinks about ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), either minor or major cases.

I always ask myself, why the huge number of ophidiophobes out there? Every non-snake-oriented person I have ever met, when I talk about my BP, first thing I get asked is: "Does he bite?" I like to give the answer, "Nearly any animal will bite when provoked enough." But dogs and cats can bite and are certainly capable of lots of damage, and yet snakes get the worse rep for it.

Some people would point to the venom factor, that some snakes are deadly, but the fact is that snake phobic people exist even in areas where there is little to no danger of venomous snakes in the area, or even many wild snakes period.

I am starting to form a hypothesis that it has to do with snakes in our culture as symbols. It all started with the Adam and Eve story, as we all know. But it continues with the media and entertainment industry. E.g.,
-movies like Anaconda, Snakes on a Plane, etc. etc.
-the constant stream of shows on Discovery/Animal Planet about "snake wrangler" types and people who go after the most venomous snakes and almost get their heads bitten off when they get right up in the snake's territory and face. (Well, duh!)
-lack of information available that most snakes are not venomous

What does everyone have to say on this topic?

[Pork Chops N' Corn Bread]

I am scared of small fast snakes(garters, racers) while big giants don't freak me out one bit.

I originally thought that it had to do with how you were raised, if you were raised to be scared, then you would be but I realized that wasn't the point. My parents were both raised to scared of snakes but I am a total addict. I can't figure out what it is. Is there any reason why some people are afraid of spiders? I know of a Trant. lady who has an arachnaphobic(sp?) daughter, how would that come to be?
Great idea for a thread

[DSGB]

My parents tried to raise me to be scarred of snakes but i do the oppistite of everything they told me when i was young so i was always out catching random snakes. My mom was deathly afraid of them and when i finally snuck home my first ball python after she looked at it a few times she said she would touch it.. that lead to her petting it. She still wont hold it but if i need her to she will throw a mouse in there and watch it eat.

I feel that with time around snakes a person with a fear of them could get over it. I have seen it happen with my mom. I think people need to be more educated about snakes (like which are harmful and how to tell the difference.)

[panthercz]

I think there are many reasons why people are scared of snakes.
Instinctual: Lets face it, many animals are leery of snakes so why not humans?

Upbringing: If you're taught snakes are dangerous, deadly, evil, the devil (yes I've seen people literally scream and cry that a garter snake in their yard was the actual devil himself coming to get them), etc. then most people will continue that thought process throughout their lives.

Lack of knowledge about snakes: This is the biggest one in my opinion. People are scared of what they know nothing about. 99% of the population couldn't tell you jack about snakes, other than what they've learned from Hollywood and urban legends. So why wouldn't they ask "does it bite" or "is it poisonous" and "are they slimy"?

Bad experience with a snake or snakes: If someone gets mauled by a German Shepard chances are that person will be wary of the next German Shepard they come across.
My grandmother is scared to death of snakes. This stems from a bad childhood experience in which she was playing outside and fell down onto a large snake that she did not see and it hissed and bit her and then squirmed all over her.
If you followed the 'Indiana Jones' movies you learn in the 3rd one how he became scared of snakes, which stemmed from a bad experience.

Finally you just have phobias. There is no reason what-so-ever for them to be scared but they just are. Just like some people are scared of large open spaces, or closed in tight spaces, the dark, the sun, etc.

I understand it and don't blame them, heck I'm not too fond of spiders. But what I can't stand are the people who then go out of their way kill any and every snake they see.

Oh and there will always be those who don't listen to their parents or are curious and will try to learn about something instead of fearing it, or who were raised differently. So that's where we come in.

[DSGB]

My grandmother is scared to death of snakes. This stems from a bad childhood experience in which she was playing outside and fell down onto a large snake that she did not see and it hissed and bit her and then squirmed all over her.

that would scare the crap out of me if i was little...

would probably be deathly afraid of snakes as well.

[wolfy-hound]

I think most of the people aren't phobic. They are ignorant of snakes.
They think it will bite you, turn on you, eat you while you sleep... all the media images, and myths they've always been told. I mean, people are always willing to believe the worst, because let's face it, it's more exciting ot them to think that harmless ball python will get out and swallow you up on night. The reality of the ball python sitting in his bin day after day doing nothing harmful is boring.
Most images people see of snakes is in the media, which is full of striking snakes. Look at youtube, see how many videos are of feeding snakes, as opposed to snakes sitting quietly. In the news, you only see the snakes that attacked their owner, not the green snake that someone has owned since it was a glorified worm. So when they see a snake, the brain immediately focuses on the most recent/memorable image it has in the memory.
If people saw dogs attacking people all the time, and saw dogs grabbing live prey to eat it, and dogs biting people, then lots of people would probably fear dogs.
Ignorance is sooo curable. All it takes is knowledge and the willingness of the ignorant to listen.
Most people who learn about snakes, find out that they aren't so bad, and end up facinated by them. Most small children I meet LIKE snakes. It's the older ones that don't. I don't think humans are born fearing snakes, but taught it by actions of the adults around them.
We can only educate the ignorant, and keep our pets safe in the meantime.

[frankykeno]

I think part of it is how you are raised. Our youngest son, who likely can't remember a time we didn't have snakes, considers snakes about as common as most kids consider a pet cat or dog. For Mikey, it's just no big deal so early conditioning is likely a big part of it.

For others, it's about religion. A bit odd really as I always ask them if they also hate women and apples LOL.

Snakes are in the end though very "alien" to the human experience. We humans like what we know, what we understand and what will interact and give something back to us...we are a very self-involved race after all. Since a snake won't run to us, begging for attention or warm our lap and purr, I think it's hard for some folks to understand why anyone would make a "pet" of one.

When we did the school education visit last year we had a lot of fun de-bunking a lot of the myths that even kindergarten kids already had. By the end of the visit every single child was interested, asking questions and willing to touch the snakes. Sadly most of them likely went home to parents that shuddered at the mention of snakes at school but maybe a few of them did learn something.

[icygirl]

Instinctual: Lets face it, many animals are leery of snakes so why not humans?

I'm not sure fear of snakes is instinctual. Lots of times little kids are the most curious and fascinated by snakes, while their parents are usually the "urghh.. *shudder*" culprits... which leads me to believe it's a learned behavior...

[alexbutler]

I've helped several people that I know get over the fear, or at least get to the point where they could see a snake on TV and not freak out. I even got a friend to the point where she could touch a snake and not get creeped out. And what led to that was she was in her backyard with her daughter who was 3 years old and she saw a snake. She left her daughter and ran in the house. She eventually came back to the door and got her daughter to come to her. The snake which she describe as about 2 feet long and black was nowhere near her or her daughter...... She felt so horrible about it, she was calling herself a bad mother and everything. So I voluntered to help her get over her fear. And it took about 6 months to get her to the point where she could touch a snake. So now if I meet someone who is extremly afraid I'll try to help them have a better understanding of snakes and answer the questions they throw at me...which can cause the fear level to go down some.

One of the things that I've learned from observing my wife's cousin (7 years old at the time), is that Paola only had a fear of snakes when her mother was around. To me she was learning to fear snakes maybe even subconciously from her mother. And it wasn't even anything that her mother said.... it was just her reaction that made Paola fear snakes. And once her mom got kinda use to the fact that we had snakes and stop freaking out when she saw them, Paola was more calm around them even with her mother with her.

Pic of my wifes cousin and one of my Ball Pythons

[Freakie_frog]

Ok here is my two cents.

People most people that are afraid of snakes are ignorant about them. Their fear is based on misinformation from years of hearsay and a media presented ideal of them.

You take a group of 5-8 years olds and bring in the local "snake man" to their school. Every kid will want to touch and pet the animals. Take the same kids 10 years later and I bet a year pay that there will be 2% of them that will even be willing to be in the same room with the same animal. What happened they watched T.V and listened to old wives tales. Their fear is in fact not their own but their mom and dads that they have adopted and reinforced with the media and Va' la' you have an instant phobia.

If I've said it once I've said it 900 times. This is why as reptile keepers education is our greatest tool. It is because of a lack of education that our hobby faces every day, somewhere, on some level a misinformed or ignorant opposition. It is our job as responsible herpetoculturist regardless of your level to be knowledgeable enough about our hobby to intelligently be able to offer the facts about our belove pets. We might never see a day when reptiles replace the family dog. But we may see the day that we no longer have to stand before our local law makers and try to present 20 years of positive experience in a 5 minute deposition just to be able to continue to keep and have a daily personal relationship with these amazing animals.

Please ignorance is the seed of fear and people fear what they don't understand.