Let's make no mistake about this - this is a tragedy - but an avoidable one. While my condolences go out to this woman's family, it doesn't change the fact that she was acting irresponsibly.

I continue to read articles and posts from people who talk about how "tame" their giants are. Let's get back to reality - they aren't tame, they don't "think", the concept of "trustworthy" should not be used in conjunction with any reptile and continuing to propagate these myths is doing nothing but putting our hobby in danger.

Too many giant reptiles, be it monitors or snakes, are being sold to people who have no business owning them. When I see articles in magazines espousing that retics and burms make excellent captives, I cringe. When people are using giants as "meet and greet" animals at kids parties and events, I cringe. We sit here and wring our hands about the government stepping in and trying to regulate our hobby, but very few people are making any effort at self regulation.

It is a matter of time until something even more tragic happens. What's everyone's reaction going to be when a burm or a retic constricts someone's kid because it smelled the family cat or bunny on them? When the leading magazine in our hobby is running articles stating that they make good captives or showing pictures of children petting a 13' snake at a party - what message is being broadcast?

All this talk about "knowing" the animal or discussing that somehow her behavior was acceptable because it was docile is silly. It's a giant, potentially deadly animal with a brain the size of a marble. All you need to know is that if it's hungry or upset, all bets are out the window.

You can't make comparisons between taking a chance with a 5' ball python and an 11' retic. While it's tragic that someone lost their life this way, asking people to censor their feelings on the issue out of respect for the dead is uncalled for. It's incidents like this that are putting the future of our hobby on the line.