Understanding Cold Beauty

[Tinky]

I bought my first snake this week.


Now I have had Dragons for some time and people are fascinated by them and are generally happy to handle them, even though they are rough skinned with spiky protrusions and at 50cm long and can scratch when getting comfortable.


Compare this with the paranoid reactions that I am getting when I tell people that I have a snake. It is just not rational. My little costal is very placid and feels wonderful to hold. It is inquisitive and absolutely fascinating.


Though I have only just become a snake person, and understand that they are primarily cold blooded predators, they are also uniquely beautiful animals. The fact that some people cannot admire their beauty, even from afar is confusing.


A cat person can admire a Lion even if they are reluctant to get intimate with a wild specimen.


Why can normal people not see how magnificent my little snake is? Why do they act as if a Hatchie coastal is devil spawn that wants to attack them with evil vigour?




APS: Dangerous animals and their reptiles.

 

[ravan]

exactly! my bf isnt a reptile person... and yet, the first time he stayed at my place, i went to go do something, and came back out, and there he was sitting in front of the beardie tank, with the glass door open, and patting one of them under the chin

and he helped me feed my frogs the other night, and he's absolutely fascinated by them...
so am slowly building him up to feeding/holding my snakies

but at the same time, cats are also beautiful creatures, yet why do some feel the need to talk about killing them or whatnot.

 

[monster]

i agree. i just bought my first snake (spotted childrens python) and it frustrates me how ignorant people are. snakes are very misunderstood creatures. my snake is placid, gentle, friendly and curious, is never aggressive and grows more beautiful by the day. thanks for your understanding.great to know there are more people out there who feel the same!

 

[TigerCoastal]

i've got an idea, and it comes from talking to some of the people i work with. When i first got my coastal and took some pics in to show some mates, most people creeped out. When a few of them did i asked them what it was about snakes that made them feel that way and i got the general answers, there gross, they bite blah blah blah. My next question is: what makes you think that? and most of them said that it comes from watching doco's and movies, reading books, and the way they were raised. How many parents try to scare their kids from going near a snake? I can understand this as i am worried about our boys finding a wild snake (no pythons round here) and trying to handle it, but I think if people are raised to show respect to all animals, venomous or non-venomous, cute and cuddly or dangerous and not scared from going near them as kids there would be alot less people that are scared of them.

 

[Kristy_07]

c

 

[Kristy_07]

oops, sorry for that. silly fingers.

We're genetically wired to be afraid of snakes. It's why captive chimpanzees instinctively know the shape of a snake, even if they've never seen one before, even if it's rubber, and still know to scream an alarm. And it's why we, even as snake-lovers, sometimes flinch and pull away when a hatchie unexpectedly tags us. I think it's instinct, not ignorance that occurs in most people that get creeped out by snakes. Combine that with a society that brings us up with stories like Adam and Eve and the Serpent, Medusa, The Jungle Book's Kaa, even Harry Potter that all depict snakes as evil, and it's really no wonder that most people don't have a desire to get up close and personal. I was trying to think of some "good snake" stories off the top of my head, and the closest I came was the Rainbow Serpent...

Let them get creeped out. Why waste time trying to convince anyone otherwise, when you could be spending more time with your slithery friends?

 

[Gekambi]

Well it could be worse than people being scared of your pet snake. They could be scared and stop you getting one. Lol. We need more Aztec's. If i remember rightly they thought snakes were a god didnt they??

 

[J-A-X]

and i've noticed that the same people that are petrified of being bitten by a snake -even hatchies- will 'play fight' for hours with kittens and puppies and their needle sharp teeth and claws. or even do battle with overgrown roses bushes rather than be within 5ft of a placid snake

I can understand parents making us fearful of snakes as kids, after all look at how many venomous snakes we have in this country, and kids tend to be fearless and its just lack of exposure to 'good' snakes as adults that keeps that fear alive.

And i agree with you on the beauty of my new found friends, i've had numerous mammals as pets, not one of them holds a candle to my growing collection of scaley mates.

 

[monster]

i still love my dog too. dont get me wrong but i just find snakes fascincating and i find it a great shame that most people will never get the opportunity to experience them intimatley due to prevailing social attitudes and the inate fear that we have of them which is largley instilled in us from our parents. hope someday in the future it can change. although i am glad there are some others out there who feel the same as i do. i love all animals i think they are creatures to be cherished!

 

[fritzi2009]

I have 5 snakes, however if someone wants to hold one, I always get my stimmy our first. The diamonds move around very quickly, Im still not completely trustworthy of my Coastal, and most people are scared and/or intimidated by the Woma.

Most of my friends won't touch my snakes, however the ones that do are primarily girls haha. I have guy friends who won't step near my tanks, even when the snake inside is nowhere to be seen.

I find it a wonder how anybody can hate or want to hurt any animal. Apart from bees, and wasps. I'll make an exception for those horrible stinging things

 

[Chris1]

ive had mostly positive reactions to the snakes, people WANT to overcome their fears, ive been asked numerous times to bring them to work, and they spend the day cruising around everyones desks and getting a thousand photos taken in the studio.

biggest problem is getting the girls in the office to part with their new fashion accessory at the end of the day, lol,...!!

id rather get bitten by a 50cm python than a 50cm beardy anyday,....beardys hurt!!

 

[cement]

oops, sorry for that. silly fingers.

We're genetically wired to be afraid of snakes.

Gee, that means i am wired wrong!
I have to deal with some really extreme reactions from people on my callouts. Irrational, illogical and just plain nuts.
I did a call out to a hatchling swampie and the absolute repulsion on the womans face was incredible. So when she asked what I will do with it, I said I was going to leave it there in the garden where it belonged, (after explaining the truth about them) and the husband stepped up and nicely asked that in the interests of his wifes sanity would i mind taking it away.

I dropped it into the next door neighbours front yard on the way out. But my son helped me out by mentioning that at least they didn't kill it. Which I thought was a fair call.

 

[raycarpetpython]

Well, believe it or not, I used to be absolutely terrified of snakes. I will never forget that cold winter morning when i went out to get some shorts out of the clothes basket (that had been left outside on the veranda) and BAM! A massive (well about 6-7ft at the time) carpet python was just curled up in there trying to get warm and I sh#t myself and ran inside, lol. It wasn't until my gf had her first python that i gradually got around to liking them, and if i had more room i would have more than 2 by now . Just in regards to peoples reactions when they see or ask about my snakes, it's mostly positive things. They usually want to see them, hold them and ask me how you look after them, what i feed them etc.

 

[whcasual79]

I remember someone saying to me ewww you keep snakes, but they are cold blooded .... my reply was do u like butterflies?? she said yea i do, why? i said well they are cold blooded too love

 

[53ERX]

I remember someone saying to me ewww you keep snakes, but they are cold blooded .... my reply was do u like butterflies?? she said yea i do, why? i said well they are cold blooded too love

Will keep that one one reserve I think! Although I do have one friend (female), who is absolutely terrified of butterflies.

 

[Nighthawk]

Actually the mythology was one of the first things that attracted me to snakes. If you do a quick google search you'll find that snakes have represented almost every aspect of human nature at some point in history: good, evil, ignorance, wisdom, sexuality, spirituality... it's amazing that a creature so reviled is so identified with.
Amazing animals, amazing history...

 

[Tinky]

Got to laugh.

Saw this thread and thought that sounds interesting. Opened it up to read and thought *** I wrote it.

Thanks for resurrecting. Still getting the same reaction, however my costal hatchie is now 180cm. Still a great snake to handle.

Cheers