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Is anyone watching this crap??!!?? The SENSATIONALISM! This is completely misguiding B******T. We should get a pettiotion of some kind or some form of action to protest this to AP. What do you think?

RayRay

I saw it a few months ago, and thn again tonight... I agree that it is a bunch of crap and it is very misguideing.. I was shocked to see that kind of program on Animal Panet instead of FOX... But on the bright side it will scare would be "bad owners" who just "Want a big snake" Though i dont think its the right way to go about it, it will make people think twice.. it just makes things more difficult for us...

On the bright side i loved watching that retic chase those monkeys up the tree

I've seen the show a couple of times, and while it does sensationalize keeping big snakes, it also makes some valid points. First of all, proper caging and handling techniques are absolutely paramount to keeping big snakes responsibly. I see too many big snake owners (and I myself have been guilty of this) being too flippant and taking too many chances when it comes to handling/displaying their animals. One very important point that came out in the program is that big snakes aren't for everyone. You have to know what you're doing. You have to know what these animals are capable of. I think there are too many boid owners who don't respect and/or aren't aware that their relatively small (8 feet on up) "pet" snake can kill them. I'd also be willing to be that most of us have had at least one scary incident with our snakes. I've had two, in addition to the various and sundry nips, bites and strikes I've endured over the years.

The first one came at the hands of a 10 foot burmese. Bit me in the face because I had just eaten baked chicken for lunch. The snake was on a diet of chickens at the time, and it was feeding time. I was going to clean her cage then feed her later that day. There were no food items on my property at the time. The snake smelled my hands, and crawled up my body towards my head. I was talking at the time, and before I knew what was happening, she struck at my face and got me on the top of my nose to the right corner of my mouth. Very tame snake, excellent temperament. She just confused my head with a chicken. The wounds were superficial, but could have been much worse.

The other scary incident came during a show. I was displaying what had been a relatively calm African rock python (also about 10-11 feet long)to about 120 Boy Scouts at a summer day camp. When the rock came out, she went ballistic, biting, striking, defecating, the whole bit. She got out of my hands and I grabbed her tail. She turned and struck, nailing me on the left forearm. She held on. I grabbed her head and pulled her from my arm. She responded by wrapping around my right arm and squeezing. This reminds me of what happened to the zookeeper in the Animal Planet show: big snake bites keeper, keeper grabs head, snake constricts. Fortunately, it was only my arm, and I got some help to unwrap it. No big deal, but had the African rock gotten around my head or neck, it could have been much worse.

I guess my point in recounting all this is while the show was sensational, accidents are a part of the game. All kinds of animals can be portrayed in this light, including dogs, horses, cattle and any number of other domesticated creatures. Most of the stuff portrayed in the show could have been prevented with sound herpetocultural practices, but not everybody practices the hobby correctly. If these kinds of shows keep potential irresponsible owners from getting big snakes, then they've accomplished something good. The flipside is that people (i.e. authorities) can use this kind of info to ban or restrict big snake ownership. It is up to us as keepers to use sound handling/displaying habits to educate the public and show that the stuff on Animal Planet is the exception, not the rule.

And by the way, what do y'all think about the keeper that got attacked by the big retic? That was kind of wild. I kind of shook off the other stories with a laugh, but that one was a little unnerving.

RP