Quiick Question About Pythons, etc in the US

[MasonC2K]

Are there any official or otherwise reliable statistics on how many exotic snakes are currently in the US pet trade?

A friend of mine is arguing that:

The argument that human deaths by constrictor or venomous snakes are really rare does not imply that snakes are inherently safer. Rather, it is because there are very few snakes of this nature kept in the U.S. Dogs kill about 15 Americans each year, but there are 70 million dogs in the U.S., compared to maybe 7,000 or at most 70,000 constrictor or venomous snakes. If snakes kill only one American per year, that means that the rate of deaths for snakes is many orders of magnitude higher than the rate of deaths for dogs.

Dogs - 1 death for every 5,000,000 animals
Snakes - 1 death for every 70,000 animals (71 times higher)

I really think he just pulled the snake number out of thin air. I don't want to counter him with another number I make up.

[Brimstone111888]

I would assume there are probably proprtional in numbers. People like BHB have literally 10,000s+ in constricter snakes by himself. In a video of his he has a wall of just 5,000 snakes, so he probably has close to 50-60,000 by himself, not counting all the imports and pet stores.

I wouldn't be shocked if there were more snakes than dogs in the country to be honest.


Here is the video I'm talking about:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=M5NGBEnnQgI


Also keep in mind that is only 1 breeder. There are a few others who have just about as many snakes and there are also thousands more keepers who have less than <100.

Sorry I don't have an exact figure, but it at least shows your friend is WAY off on the snake count.

[Sunny1]

I too think that your friend's snake count is way off. I am not sure exactly, but there is probably a better way to estimate the number of dogs in the US from license registrations as well as AKC/ other kennel club registrations, or just from rabies tag numbers (however they go about estimating)..... snakes don't have to be registered or licensed (in most places), etc. so there is probably a very inaccurate number out there for the number of snakes owned. I don't really see how they could even begin to get an accurate count...

The thing it all boils down to in my mind is knowing how to responsibly take care of your pets, then even less people would be hurt from pet animals. In my mind, all of these instances could have been avoided, just by properly knowing, training (for dogs), researching, keeping your pet (whether it be dogs or snakes).

[littleindiangirl]

LOL BHB alone has close to 30,000 snakes at his facility at most times... I think your friend is pulling some numbers out of thin air....

Edit: I was looking for the anapsid article, but I found it on Ralph's site to give you a small idea...

http://www.ralphdavisreptiles.com/in...ython_care.asp

With the increased popularity of reptiles as pets there is increased pressure on wild populations.
In addition to the more than 60,000 ball pythons that are imported annually,

This is no where even close to the number of animals produced and sold State side.

[MasonC2K]

How about this.

Let's say 7 out of 10 people on a dog and/or cat as a pet.

How many out of 10 own an exotic snake (more specifically one affected by the proposed ban)?