Discrimation for having snakes???

[JeffJ]

Tell that to all of my Granites(6). They have no other intention except to eat your face or go for your jugular, one or the other.

maybe you look tasty? they are not plotting to eat you. they just get the idea on the fly haha

[JeffJ]

an ammendment to my previous statement:

My girlfriend is scared of big snakes. She doesn't want to feed or hold 8 foot 25+ boas, and she wants a nice pane of glass between her and a 16 foot retic.

Which is understandable, and better than having no respect for their abilities. I wouldn't want to be bit and wrapped by a 16 foot retic. It's not about it being a snake, it's just about being a large undomesticated animal. Dogs and horses and cowsshe's ok with because they're domesticated, but similar to big snakes she doesn't feel comfortable in close proximity to uncaged alligators, sharks, bison, chimps(lol)...

lol chimps, did you see the news too? lady got got her arse handed to her by her pet chimp.... never thought id be seeing that on the 11 o'clock lol

[Face]

so slip if we have a conversation and i say "eat your face" in it. am i referring to your girfriend (Face) or your physical face... now im just confused lol

Jeff,

Our Cinni tired to eat my face last night. He is new, young, still settling in and a bit stressed. So you could say "Face, had her snake try to eat her face"...LOL Now everything is clear as mud!

[JeffJ]

Jeff,

Our Cinni tired to eat my face last night. He is new, young, still settling in and a bit stressed. So you could say "Face, had her snake try to eat her face"...LOL Now everything is clear as mud!

haha yah Slim gave us the play by play cometary last night. i laughed, couldnt help it. Had a visual of a girl pulling an almost kung-fu manoeuvre to avoid this lil guy filled with piss and vinegar

[Kaorte]

My family is really split with the whole snake thing. My parents hate snakes (although my father is a bit more tolerant), but my cousins and aunts and uncles are facinated and want to meet them. My cousin is a huge animal rights activist so she loves everything that moves, haha. She wanted me to bring my snake to her 4 year olds birthday party but I told her it probably wasn't a good idea. Plus my mom would have a cow.

[Argentra]

Dontcha just Loooove how people see evil, poisonous, kid-killing monsters when they hear 'snake'...even if it's just a small BP or corn???

I have no problems with any of my family. My dad, by virtue of the Navy and trips to Vietnam and such, does NOT like snakes OR rodents and "can't understand how his daughter could love those things so much"...but he doesn't do much more than tease me about it.
My mom thinks it's cool, though she tells me it would take her a while to get physically used to them if she ever managed to visit.
My Ex and especially my 10yr old daughter think it's the greatest! In fact, I recently heard that Katy looks forward to my emails with picture updates of the snakes so she can "freak out her friends and classmates" (You know...the whole "Your mom has SNAKES??"). Both can't wait to come up for a visit and Katy always asks me how the snakes are doing. That's my girl!
My BF, Ari (the one who actually lives here with me and the snakies), has no problems at all and actually likes the snakes. He holds them for me from time to time and talks to them at night when they're out cruising their cages. He does have a tiny problem with how much space they take up...but since I'm working on fixing that with the stacked cage system and a second rack, it's not as much of an issue.

No, the people I get words and looks from are the random folks who overhear me talking about my babies with my friends. THAT'S when I hear the usual - "Aren't they poisonous?", "OMG, they're in your Bedroom? Aren't you afraid they'll strangle you in the night?", and of course - "Those things are evil, you should get rid of them!" Some people just will never be taught.

[Bruce Whitehead]

Hopefully you can educate your family about the snakes and help remove some of those preconceptions.

I do think snakes have a stigma, for those that do not have snakes...

When I got my first BP a friend said to me "I did not think of you as on of those guys that has a snake."

Having one was novel to people... having 45, now they just go *meh*.

But being that they know the snake room is secure and if they do not want to then they never have to see a snake, that helps those few that have valid fears to feel more relaxed.

But there are family and friends that will not come into my house because of it, and we work around that.

I think part of having snakes is understanding that not everyone does get it, or wants to share in it. And some people have genuine fears. That is part of educating and informing.

I hope you have some positive experiences to outweight the bad ones.

Stick with us. We LOVE snakes.

Bruce

PS: Same goes for friends that want to talk to me for 5 hours about their cat... NO I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR CAT FOR FIVE HOURS!!!

[Bruce Whitehead]

No, the people I get words and looks from are the random folks who overhear me talking about my babies with my friends. THAT'S when I hear the usual - "Aren't they poisonous?", "OMG, they're in your Bedroom? Aren't you afraid they'll strangle you in the night?", and of course - "Those things are evil, you should get rid of them!" Some people just will never be taught.

My favorite is... "are they all loose?"

[Haitun]

I wanted a snake for the longest time when I was a kid, but my mom wouldn't let me get one. As soon as I was 18, I bought my first snake and there was nothing she could do about it. She's ok with her now though, as long as she doesn't have to see any mice getting eaten.

A lot of guests that come to my house wanted to see my snake out of curiousity. But often they were so grossed out or actually scare of her that they'd refuse to hold her or even touch her.

But it sounds like my experiences aren't nearly as bad as most of you guys. Then again I've only been keeping snakes for a year and a half now.

[angie7]

I'm sorry, but any normal human being would likely be more concerned about the four dogs than the tiny snakes.

Well considering that one of them is a Great Dane, that would make sense My dh and I use to be involved in rescue for GD's and had a 175 lb rescue male that we decided to keep due to health concerns. He passed away when our twins were just 4 months old, no one was concerned about him but they are of a snake??