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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)

the same thing happened to me not to long ago. i walked up to a guy when i was camping an he was throwin rocks at a watter snake but i saved the little guy plus he only bit me 2 times

oh i was walkin into work one day (home depot) and there were a couple "big tough guys" poking at something in the little island in the middle of the parking lot with a stick and i didnt think nething of it until i heard get that ba**ard snake. i walked up...it was a big ole gray rat...i walked up and the guy was goin for its head i grabbed it i said dont do that and pushed the stick away and got the snake picked it up the guys are yelling the whole time "you're f'in stupid its gonna kil you its a cottonmouth"...and the like. by this time a manager was out there and he goes chris whats going on...i picked upt hte snake and said meet homer. lol. i took him acros the street and put him in the marshy woodland area where i think he came from....all those "big tough construction workers" were runing around on their tippy toes like scared prissy little girls...it was great.
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The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Neonate Black Rat (het for Lic Stk's) (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)

np
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

A simliar thing happened to me, I came across a guy beating an adult black rat snake with an axe handle. My reaction was a little less polite then yours, I caught the axe handle in the upswing and beat the guy repeatly about the head yelling " how's that feel, you b##st#d!! After he fell to ground and blood began to pool around his head, I picked up the snake and ran off to the vet. Amazingly, the snake survived. I don't know what happen to the guy who did it, but you'll understand if I don't say when and where this happened.

As a rescue operator, I can appreciate your dilemna. I deal with people every day that hurt reptiles because they don't know enough about them. Like the guy who was starving his ball python because he heard if you feed them more than once a month they get "stomach rot". It can be a challenge educating people about this without being rude or condescending, but everyone in the reptile community needs to do it to make the public more comfortable around reptiles.

And as for the whole copperhead thing . . . I swear so many harmless snakes get killed for alledgedly being copperheads. If people would only take a second to learn what a copperhead's hourglass markings look like.

Thanks for telling the guy off anyway!

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Jesse Rothacker
Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary
"Find out how you can get involved in reptile rescue..."
www.forgottenfriend.org