Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I think just in the past few weeks alone about 4 or 5 stories have made the national news about pet snakes turning up in people's homes after there owners most likely got tired of them and just cut them loose. There were a few in Florida but today another story surfaced about a snake in someone's toilet in New Jersey! That's just cruel considering that winter is just around the corner and that snake wouldnt have survived. I mean, if you no longer want your snake then sell it or give it to someone who wants to take care of it. Don't just drop it out in the woods somewhere to fend on its own and then die in the winter if you live in a colder climate. And who knows how much more of this is happening that isnt making the news! Anyway, If this has already been brought up then I apologize. I haven't been on here in a while. Im starting to think that you need to take some sort of test to own one of these animals! Maybe that would weed out the people that aren't very serious about it and just want to own one for the shock value. Anyway, that's my two cents on the subject. Just venting I guess. Thank you.

I have many friends that own snakes and reptiles. They are the ones that inspired me to get into snakes. Back on topic, My friend ronald breeds various lampropeltis and various Nerodia (to tired to type full names) and if he gets a surplus of snakes he dumps them into the wild. Why he does this??? I don't know maybe he is psycho or something. I totally agree with you 100% though. I think my friend does this because he thinks he's helping the population (stupid?) or something. Please don't flame me I just had to bring it up that a lot of people do this.
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0.0.1 Elaphe guttata (Blaze)
Yea I'm a N00b!

I once saw a corn snake breeder in the heart of corn snake country admit to releasing the babies that didn't feed voluntarily right off the bat. The thinking might have been that in a wild environment with natural prey they might be more likely to eat.

Where I'm at we aren't even supposed to move a wild snake more than like 10 miles or something. I suppose disease and gene pool pollution fears.

I guess we can play God with our captives but shouldn't with the wild population, as cool as it would be to find a high concentration of multiple mutants in your back yard.

Np

>>Np
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

some people are "losing" venomous snakes. Can you imagine an area that matches a cobras environment very well and suddenly where none exist, they start to flourish?
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

Florida could become Dangerous

People let their dogs and cats loose all of the time....all day every day, look at the pet shelters and rescues. Reptiles are no different except thats what we are into. It's wrong but people will still do it.
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Matt Lerer
'Ghi Reptiles'
'Ghi Arboreals'

We don't have anything "Bad" hear except winter, and I can deal with that... No thanks to venomous snakes (I don't mind them in an enclosure, but I don't like them under my car when I'm getting in it), No thanks to Hurricanes (I don't know how you guys do it), No thanks to Earthquakes and mudslides... I've always thought about moving out of state, but we don't really have too many threatening things here, the winters get too cold for any dangerous tropical animals.. If someone lets a cobra go here, it's not gonna make it...
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Joe Lydon

Good points all. I'm from Michigan myself. Only problem I see with the cobra here is if he was cut loose early enough he might take a few out before the first frost

Quig

Bullfrogs are not a native species and they eat anything that moves - native snakes, frogs, critters, etc. They def do not do the native herps any favors!

Christy

I just opened a pet store after many years in the various animal hobbies. One of our specialties is herps. Mainly small herps that are good for kids (over 30 speicies in stock). It seems like most of the calls so far are from people wanting me to take big snakes off their hands, sometimes for free just to get rid of them. This is sickening. I'm not setup to care & house this size animal. I have a board in the shop where people can advertise animals they want to sell but none of these people have done this yet.

The way I see it the herp community has 2 main problems to help solve. (1) Help aggressivly deal with the problem of people who can't (or won't) correctly keep their pets and it would be better for everybody if they did not have them. (2) Correctly and safely bring kids into the hobby. I have seen too many times when mom,pop & juinor came into the shop where I worked and the parents explaine that juinor wants an iquana or monitor. Juinor is maybe 7 or 8. Juinor, in my opinon, doesn't need that big a lizard. There many smaller, easy to care for, easy to handle herps that are great for introducing people into the hobby. As stores we need to search out and handle these animals.

Sorry for the long post but I guess one good vent leads to another.

A lady I teach with has a sister that swears she hit a HUGE snake a couple months ago. She was in S. California and said she ran over a snake that stretched across 3 lanes! Teacher told me about it to get my "expert" opinion, saying there was no way her sister was telling the truth b/c a snake doesn't exist like she was describing. When she said it was the thickness of a small log (that made her SUV bump hard) and was yellow and white, I told her sister probably was telling the truth...
I was thinking an albino retic or burm that was released???
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Isn't it cooler that serpent's don't walk anymore?
(Genesis 3:14)

I share your frustration with people who aren't responsible, but I'll never support more licensing for anything. Most people who cause big problems are not stupid. They're just thoughtless and irresponsible. If we make everyone get licenses to own snakes, they'll still get licenses. If they are buying a snake purely for shock value, they'll get the license for additional shock value. However, when the shock wears off, they'll move on to something else shocking and are still likely to do something irresponsible with their animals. A license won't keep them being irresponsible, but it will be one more hassle for responsible owners to have to maintain. Furthermore, the average citizen is not going to support serious penalties for someone who owns, buys, or sells a snake without a license when there are so many other problems in our society. Without serious penalties, licensing laws would not be enforced uniformly or fairly and would not stop the problem that you've described. I realize that our society has come to view licensing as the solution to most problems, but when all is said and done, it's rarely the solution to anything.

While I am disgusted by irresponsible people who purchase snakes and then allow those snakes to cause problems, they are no worse than people who are irresponsible with any other pet. Someone's loose snake is rarely going to be a real danger to me. I'm still less afraid of a big python let loose in the bayous around here than I am of a big, unfriendly dog roaming the neighborhood. Letting a snake loose may be bad for the snake, but most of those snakes aren't going to hurt a person. Stray cats and dogs are a much greater danger to people.

Bill