Reptile & Amphibian Forums

5 minutes sooner and that motorcycle wouldn't have hit that beaufitul little smooth green-right on my street-how depressing.
Don't people ever actually look at the road??

L

It's very sad, but the truth is there are stupid people out there who go out of there way to run over snakes. I see snakes on the road dead all the time. Some are almost 2 feet off the pavement, but are visisble to drivers. So what was the point in killing it, you know it wasnt an accident, and they are almost always harmless black snakes. It's very sad. Live and let live I say, it wasnt hurting anyone. And most farmers around here would be sorry if they werent around to keep the rodents out of their crops.

There are a couple of different things to lok at here.

Firstly, I ride motorcycles and keep snakes. There is no way I'm going to risk crashing my motorcycle and possibly killing myself trying to dodge a snake. If I can avoid it without a violent swerve, I will..if not, sorry about that!

Secondly, the real problem is the people that will swerve out of their normal path to TRY to run over a snake. There are a lot of them. Happens all the time to all kinds of snakes. However, just because the snake is off to the shoulder doesn't mean that the person intentionally ran over it. Snakes can often crawl quite a distance after being run over. As a matter of fact, I would say that only a fraction of the snakes that are run over by cars are still on the road or in easy sight of the road. Most of them likely crawled off in the woods and died later.

I really think you are putting it out of proportion. Sure some people run over snakes, but reasonably, most people probably dont see them. I have run over snakes before. Not on purpose obviously, but it happens occasionally. So far it has only been two, but when you normally drive 15 and are looking for them you do not hit that many. And some snakes that are on the shoulder or in the grass probably were still alive when hit and slithered off to die or what not. And especially at night or at sunset, spotting snakes on the road can be tricky. Andy
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Andy Maddox
The Reptizone

Who are you who can say it's ok to live through me? Alice In Chains

If you look at the way the law is written in AZ.
It is illegal to intentionally run over a snake without a valid small game hunting license.

That is true I ran oer a gopher snake on a dirt road last time I went colecting. I took the snake off the road and we went on our way. Later that day ew returned and found the snake nearly 30 feet off the road were it finaly crawled and died. I cant support that fact 100% though as my retard brother has been known to swerve over the line to hit a snake intntionaly., Also I to ride bikes and would not risk myselfe and in my car surely will not risk my family So I go with the other person saying sorry should have built a snake fence.

I have a bumper sticker on my car that say, "Give a snake a brake!" I just wish more people would have a little courtesy when they see a snake on the road. I'm sure if it was a cat or bunny they would be more cautious. Take care, Scott.

"..if it was a cat or bunny they would be more cautious."

I guess this is what I was trying to get at. I think that snakes don't get the same consideration as other animals. But you are right, some people don't see them until it is too late.

Maybe it's just me and because I do look at everything ON the road and not just where I'm going-It is possible to mistake a snake for a stick or vise versa- (esp at night) or in the case of a green snake-a long piece of grass-if you see it at all. But people in a our neighborhood also know that it is has ALOT of small animals-and they do look to make sure they don't hit squirrels and misc fuzzies.

Then there are the people that do intentionally-I've seen it-hit ANY live animal in the road-esp. turtles-can't really understand the thrill of hearing it "pop" as they describe it-that's just sick.

I didn't mean to start any arguments or anything. Apologies.

L

I beleive I may have started the argument. I surely didnt mean it, and my apologies as well.