I live in Bloomington IN and took my puppy to the dog park today. It is at the base of a dam with a good size lake behind it. There is a small creek with lots of rocks surrounding it by a smaller dam to cross over to the woods.



Ok, sorry had to set the story up. I was watching my pup play with other dogs as a guy and his girlfriend were cutting across the park to go hiking. The guy stopped to see my pup and I guess thought he would be cool by telling me he had killed a copperhead yesterday"right over there". He said he had to drop a big rock on it a few times but the third time"the head came plumb off". I just kept my mouth shut and didnt say anything. He walked off towards the small dam. I told the girl I was with that I was the last person to be telling that story.



Well when the d*ck got to the dam he started looking around. He yelled to me "here's the snake." I went over and it was barely sticking out from under a rock but was moving. From everything I know the pattern did not look right for a copperhead, but I still didn't say anything. He ask me and another guy if we wanted to help him kill another one. We both said no so he went on his way.



I still thought something was not right. I have no field herping experience and know most from just reading about every forum on here daily(work has it's slow times). So I went and got a large stick and managed to pull the snake out. And just as I thought it was a juvie black rat. It had a lot of pattern so had not started to darken like most do around here. And the best and worst part was that it had a bad injury around it's head. This was the same snake whose "head came plumb off". I moved the snake further off the path into the the rocks.



I was just happy that I could help the snake get away because of course the guy comes back with a stick. I walked over to him and told him I pulled the snake out and moved it. I told him it was not a copperhead and that it was a baby black rat snake. He seemed surprised and said"well do they bite?" I told him if you messed with it any snake would but this was harmless. I told him I had a couple at home as pets. He then went into how he just sees a snake and thinks kill it so no children get hurt. I told him snakes don't attack people and he hurt an innocent snake. Nothing was better than the look on his face knowing he looked like an a**.



I'm sure you have all had experiences like this but I was so happy to have atleast made this guy feel guilty for doing what he tried to do. I guess we can just educated them one at a time.



Here is trhe pup that put me in a position to tell this guy what was up.




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0.0.1 Amel Motley Corn (Cosmo '03)

0.1 Baird's ratsnake (Sugaree '04)

1.1 Shepherd mix (Dylan 5yrs, Porter 7 months)

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