Think Before You Speak

I was checking some of my egroup messages and found a simple question from a man asking about venomoids. The tirade that ensued against this man was unreal. Implying that he was everything from an idiot to a blight on the snake keeping hobby. This article isn't about venomoids, it's about the things we say.

I know our hobby is much maligned and we feel the urge to defend ourselves against yet another attack. Or, we feel the need to reprimand someone for, what we think, could be harmful to our hobby. But, I think, sometimes we do ourselves as much harm as novice burmese python and rattlesnake keepers ever could.

When I started keeping snakes, I asked "silly" beginner questions. Some of which were met with harsh reactions from people, people who didn't even know me. It almost discouraged me, not from keeping snakes, but from asking questions. I didn't want to be called an idiot by a bunch of people I had never met. So, I read alot of books and, fortunately, found some very knowledgeable, patient people to answer all my "silly" questions.

I think, when the response is harsh to that novice rattlesnake keeper. More often than not, that guy will, most likely, strike out on his own. Either to prove to us he isn't an idiot or just to avoid being insulted. He'll strike out, get that rattlesnake, and without the benefit of an experienced keepers advice, most likely end up getting bit. Adding yet another black mark to our hobby.

I am asked quite often about snakes. Either by coworkers, people in my home or on the net. I hear novice questions, silly questions, and more than a few down right ridiculous ones. I answer all of them as politely as I can. Either with an explanation or referral to a website. During the course of this, I quite often hear how they had asked this before. And, alot of people were very rude, vulgar, or insulting. "I thought, 'all you people', were like that.", is a common response I get. In making harsh statements to people we are actually labeling ourselves as crude, short tempered cretins. This only succeeds in reinforcing peoples fear of snakes. Would you want a hot tempered creep, with hot snakes, living next door to you?

I've been called everything from a fool to a danger junkie, again, by people who don't really know me. Told, "no!, your wrong, ALL snakes are venomous!, I read it somewhere!" And, been accused of being a social misfit, using snakes to scare or impress people. The people making the accusations are ALWAYS either ill informed about snakes or deathly afraid of them.

We can't make EVERYONE love and respect snakes the way we do. We can't always make them fear snakes less. But, we can affect more of a change in peoples perception of snakes by providing true facts and information. By displaying good, safe, and responsible care practices. And by keeping a friendly, calm and patient attitude.

I get tired of answering the same old questions over and over again too. But, then I remember how I was treated when I started out. It will be a real challenge getting people to respect snakes and respect our right to keep them. But, I think we're up to it. We come in close proximity to venomous snakes everyday...By Choice! We were willing to devote long hours of reading, years of handling nonvenomous snakes, and asked endless questions just to get enough knowledge to keep our hots. If we can do that, I think we can answer a few "silly" questions, and keep our cool doing it.

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