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Sometimes, I just want to curl up in a hole. With my snakes.

Alli_Draggy

Alli_Draggy

Wadjet's family
There's a thread on one of the homeschool forums I'm on that has the title "I think I killed a corn snake :(" It's the usual "I thought it was a copperhead, so I killed it".

I posted a long reply suggesting ways to make your property less attractive to snakes, giving information on finding people to safely relocate snakes, etc, dog aversion training to snakes and so on.

And for the most part, I got "No one is going to do that. The only safe snake is a dead snake" type comments, and people telling the OP that she was right for killing any snake. Including from the OP who was supposedly so upset that she killed a harmless corn snake.

I'm going to have to stay off that board until it scrolls off. I'm so frustrated. I'm just glad Alli isn't up yet.

I guess what frustrates me most is that we're well known on that board. It's known not only that we have snakes and that Alli is into herpetology and does conferences, herping trips, and so on in the field, but that we have corn snakes. Would you EVER post stuff like that about anyone else's pet? If someone said "I think I killed a cat :(" would that person get 50+ responses supporting that they did the right thing, because it might be a bobcat and better safe than sorry, knowing that it's going to be upsetting to cat owners who have striped cats that look kind of like bobcats if you squint a bit and just notice that it's cat shaped?

I'm furious, I'm hurting, and I'm crying. Not so much over the snake, but at the fact that these folks are completely uneducatable-and that means that many more kids who are learning to hate and fear snakes. It seems hopeless.
 
I'm so sad to hear this...
As long as snakes and snake owners keep being treated like freaks this isn't gonna stop, and unfortunately these people will pass on their own biased opinions to friends, kids and kin.
I guess they just think that even if you own snakes, they're not pets, even from your point of view (they do feel the right to say what YOU think).

I would understand that from people in small towns who may be single-minded, but seriously, the USA is full of snakes, it's way more common than here to see them.
A lot of education and experimentation is still missing for most of people regarding snakes. More should be done so that people not only understands how benefitial they are, but also how most of them are completely harmless and can be quite tame.

If you tried reasoning but that didn't serve, just stay away from that board and try opening the minds of people who do want it and value different points of view...
 
I live in a very small midwest town and I see the tide turning. The young people my son brings home are mostly interested in the snakes.They are also more aware of how important they are to the environment. Yes the people my age are still mostly terrified or just plain hate snakes, but overall I find it encouraging that the up and coming are changing their attitude.

The biggest reason snakes are killed is fear, just like spiders.
 
I am sorry and I agree.. People will not understand. It takes time to educate.
<3 You did what you could and that is all we can do for now.
 
It is so sad that people have such closed minds about, well, a lot of things, but when it comes to something we are passionate about and the harm that became of it it really becomes personal.

On the flip side, how many people have you successfully educated about snakes? There are some who will never be open to even considering snakes in a positive light, but when you know there is no changing their mind think of all the people you HAVE helped get over their fears and given them understanding of what your snakes are really about. And more than likely those people will pass along the positivity to others.

It certainly doesn't negate the feedback and attitude you got on that site, I would clear my hands and walk away from the negativity and small minded people there, you can't fix stupid.
 
That's what I keep telling Alli when she gets down and depressed about it (we have one family who is now participating actively in our group classes where the mom, three years ago, made her husband bring her daughter to Alli's snake-themed birthday party, which didn't actually have any live snakes at it. She's now comfortable in our house, and her kids LOVE to hold Pinkie Py(thon). We've had quite an increase in people participating in events and activities, and more of them. It's making a difference. But the ignorance is frustrating.

Alli's field bio mentor has commented that the reason why he specialized in lizard behavior for his doctorate was twofold-the first is that behavior is positive and generally a happy field, and the second is that people see little lizards and respond "How cute", not "EEK! Kill it!". I can understand that.
 
When speaking to close minded people about snakes, I usually try to appeal to their own self - interests, since that is all they care about. For example, if they think it is fine to kill harmless snakes, I let them know that the local venomous snakes will be very happy that there is now less competition for food, hiding, basking spots, etc. If they keep it up, it should help the venomous populations expand. And if they want to boast about the 10 ft rattlesnake they killed, I let them know how much money they lost because it would have been VERY valuable - alive for an exhibit someplace. Whatever they come up with, I try to turn it around to make them worried or unhappy that they might have gone against their own interests by killing it. It is all they understand - and makes me feel better, lol!
 
Actually, 'people' do kill cats and think it is great. See Texas Veterinarian Kristen Lindsey who shot an arrow through her neighbor's cat and posed with it as it was dying on the end of her arrow. When my daughter's cat was killed by a pit bull, we got a lot of 'well, it was just a cat,' comments. A lot of those comments. Unless it is a dog, there is a huge group of people that have no feelings, no empathy for anyone or anything else. In fact, I have noticed that if the animal is not a dog, not only do people not care, they become hostile that you might care. Snakes are not even on the radar. I like animals and I like reptiles. I hit a snake years ago out on a country road in the middle of no where, when I got out of my car to see what I hit, I saw it was a snake. Then I realized it was a corn snake, it made me as sick as if I had hit anything else. I still think about that snake and feel terrible. I try not to kill anything. They all belong someplace.
 
I hear you. What's the forum? Sad that it's for homeschooling ... we are all about educating, RIGHT?

My daughter has made up a lot of songs about people and snakes and how they are treated unfairly. It breaks their hearts. My most recent frustration was a friend on Facebook who posted about chainsawing a bunch of copperheads as they were cutting wood. People were pretty gleeful about it in the comments. I posted, mentioning that for people who I thought were animal lovers, it's sure sad to see the amount of happiness a picture of a mangled up snake could bring. I expected retaliation, but she ended up deleting the picture/comments entirely.

Myca, I hit a garter in my driveway last year. I got out to see and sure enough, it was NOT a stick that I ran over. I was and am sick about it when I think on it. :(
 
Myca, you are spot on. There are hundreds of dog rescues and no kill shelters. I can't think of many shelters like that for any other type of animal.
 
I just read an article about a guy on twitter who identifies snakes of people who post pictures of alive or killed snakes claiming that they're copperheads or cottonmouths.
He makes sure to educate and not shame the people posting to spread a little good will to the herp-unaware out there :)
https://twitter.com/AlongsideWild
 
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