Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It makes me sick to see the ignorance of not only the public, but the local "experts" that approve of the killing of snakes, venomous or not. Any opinions?????

Link

the link not up anymore...
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1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Rex- "normal" orange fire)
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Glutany- German Giant Mix)
0.1.0 Okeetee Corn (Okatee)
1.1.0 Spotted Python (Hotdog and Shoelace)

Snakes infest Denton pond

Officials shoot animals after deciding they were venomous

05:15 AM CDT on Thursday, April 5, 2007
By LOWELL BROWN / Denton Record-Chronicle
lmbrown@dentonrc.com

DENTON – Paul Rodriguez knew something wasn't right when the bicycle tire he tried to pick up started slithering.

GARY PAYNE/DMN
Paul Rodriguez reached into a pond at South Lakes Park in Denton to remove what he thought was a tire. It turned out to be a water moccasin. Things just got more bizarre from there.

Mr. Rodriguez, who works for a Denton towing company, was walking Sunday afternoon at South Lakes Park off Teasley Lane when he noticed the "tire" floating in a pond.

"I reached down to pick it up, and it slithered," he said. "It was a water moccasin."

The snake fled across the pond close to where a man and two boys were fishing.

Worried, Mr. Rodriguez called animal control officers.

They arrived with two police officers and discovered other snakes that were determined to be venomous water moccasins, also called cottonmouths.

Mr. Rodriguez said he spotted 10 to 20 babies and multiple adult snakes near a pile of debris at the edge of the pond, where they appeared to be nesting. The full-grown snakes were 3 ½ to 4 feet long, he said.

Officers considered capturing and relocating the snakes but decided that was unsafe after consulting with animal service workers, said police spokesman Jim Bryan.

"It's likely if they caught one, they would get bit by another one," he said.

So one of the officers grabbed a shotgun and killed seven snakes – all that could be found, Officer Bryan said.

Police and city officials couldn't recall a similar case.

"I don't remember that we have gone out and shot a snake before," Officer Bryan said.

Emerson Vorel, the city's interim parks director, agreed.

"We see snakes in the water all the time," Mr. Vorel said. "I'm not aware of ever having seen this many snakes in one place at the same time."

One expert cast doubt on the type of snake found.

Dr. Jonathan Campbell of the University of Texas at Arlington, who specializes in reptiles and amphibians, said he would be "absolutely amazed" if the snakes were water moccasins.

"This time of year, it's possible you might find a mating pair here and there, but you're not going to find a large concentration of them," he said.

Dr. Campbell suspects they were nonpoisonous water snakes, which are far more abundant in North Texas and commonly misidentified as cottonmouths.

Even if they were water moccasins, Mr. Campbell said, they probably could have been captured safely.

"Unless you actually provoke a particular individual [snake], water moccasins are not particularly aggressive," he said.

Still, Mr. Campbell said he understands why authorities did what they did.

"I hate to see animals killed really for no reason," he said. But "if it's a public park and you've got people around you ... they [snakes] do have to be removed."

Cottonmouths are usually dark-colored and stout-bodied, about 30 to 42 inches long, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The inside of the snake's mouth is white, hence its name. The snakes prefer to live around shallow bodies of water.

The snake problem probably will spur officials to post warning signs, Mr. Vorel said.

if you have a snake stick you can get one out at a time and not worry about a different snake biting you. that or let them be and just close off the area...
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1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Rex- "normal" orange fire)
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Glutany- German Giant Mix)
0.1.0 Okeetee Corn (Okatee)
1.1.0 Spotted Python (Hotdog and Shoelace)

Oh jeez....how ridiculous. Fortunately animal control officers where I live are more informed...thanks to me (I am one of them). We don't kill them here. we do get a number of rattlesnake calls every year and we catch and release them back out in the wild....wish more people would do that!!!!

Yeah,.....that's typical "general public" mentality!.....It doesn't surprise me in the least!

It's been this way since the begining of time,....and will probably continue unchanged till the end of time!

People will always be deathly afraid of what they don't know anything about!..........and I would wager that(like the one individual stated), they were nothing more than harmless water snakes!!LOL......to the ignorant "general public", every snake seen swimming, or by the water's edge, is a "DEADLY VENOMOUS" cottonmouth!!!LOL,.......or any snake anywhere else for that matter!!
Those are the same people that would identify any snake with a "blotch" on it's back as the ever popular "Diamondback"!!.

Anyway, as frustrating as all the ignorance is in the world, we all know that's the way it seems to work!, it's only the animals with fuzzy cuddly fur, and big brown eyes that most people would care to get "up-tight" about if they were killed.

You'll also probably never see a "movie star" on TV reaching out to help any reptiles either!LOL. That would probably be looked at as a waste of time as compared to almost ANY other group of animals on the planet.

Actually, people as a "whole" in my opinion, are pretty ignorant about alot of things, CERTAINLY not just the reptile issue!.........that's my take on things!

So that would be a......YES!, I agree the situation could have been handled very easily if they thought about it for just a few more seconds, but like I stated earlier,.........most of the population would want to pin a medal of courage on the idiot that pulled out the shotgun on all the snakes, and deem him a public "HERO"!!!LOL

best regards, ~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

The police

came to a park

and exterminated the wildlife

with shotguns.

Nope. I don't see anything wrong with that.

/sarcasm

I saw an eoisode of cops where there were 3 police officers called to a house about a snake. One of the brave cops killed the black rat snake with his batton after another maced it. What gets me the snake was probably protected in the state and if a herp person wanted to capture it for a pet he would be fined if not arrested. Buddy.