Okay. First off I am a freshman in the DF/W area in Texas planning to major in Herpetology and go into zoological husbandry of venomous snakes or private milking of venom for use in making antivenom.
Lately I have been tossing around the idea of doing educational programs on the native wildlife/herps and safety for my Elementary school. I have especially noticed a hatred for all snakes. Even harmless garter snakes and green snakes (called "Garden" snakes here) are slaughtered in the thinking they may be venomous. I hope to kill this habit at least in my neighborhood. I can easily come by most harmless herps from the area and easily keep them. My last real yearn is to show them what to look for in a venomous snake, and to respect them for the awesome creatures they are. This is where it starts to get interesting, in a way.
I have been thinking of buying a native species of venomoid. In my thinking (tell me I'm thinking wrong) keeping a venomoid snake could help improve the public's thinking on reptiles to thinking of what awesome animals they are and that they should always be treated with the upmost respect. I would really like to see a future generation of conservationists in my town of people who disregard wildlife completely. It would really be a life saver for not only the wildlife, but maybe in a rare case a child (though I somewhat doubt this). Anyway, down to my question. What kind of native snake do you think would be an appropriate venomoid for this endevour? Or even if this would be feasible? I have the appropriate skill for safely handling most snakes and have practiced for the past three years on water snakes and the occasional copperhead. I have been thinking the best candidate for this would be a medium WDB or a Agkistrodon c. c. Thanks for any input
Thekidgecko
P.S. This post isn't very detailed because I was three-quarters of the way through and I accidently pushed tab then backspace and I lost my whole post, so if there are any questionable points please ask before you flame because I'm tired and most likely forgot something. And thanks for not freaking at first by seeing venomous and elementary school near each other

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]