(07-25-2013, 06:38 PM)Fishbone Wrote: I have avoided this thread for a variety of reasons, because I realize that a fear of snakes comes from a variety of things. BUT, Death2Housework, what does having a baby have to do with having a 7 foot Boa constrictor? Most boas of that size will never eat a rat over 400 grams, which is less than a pound. Yes, you can force a larger meal, but nothing near the size of a newborn infant (in most cases obviously). So, lets guess, you could force a 5 lb rabbit into a LARGE Boa, once again, what does that have to do with anything? As far as I know, there has NEVER been even an unconfirmed report of a Boa constrictor ssp killing a human, in the wild or captivity.
There were more than 20 humans killed by pit bull species just in the US last year, that's not adding all the crosses, other species and other countries. They actually kept the more dangerous animal.
I know there is next to no chance of whatever dog killing their baby, but that is still a far greater chance than the poor boa....
I agree with you here, it's this kind of fear bolstering that's destroying our hobby from the very foundation. There has been very few deaths caused by snakes, including that of venomous species per year. And even then these care cause by ignorant people who think "the only good snake is a dead snake" and attempts to kill said snake getting themselves bit. As a matter of fact it's never even been recorded of a snake actually eating a child. There was one case down in Florida several years ago where some braindead people was pet sitting for another brain dead person and left a starved snake in a room with a small girl with nothing over the crude enclosure but a blanket..... (Even people have been known to eat their own kind after being starved long enough, and this has been recorded several times) But the snake tragically killed the child and everyone pointed at the snakes as the badguys, along with us yahoos who keep them as a hobby. When the fault actually falls back onto the idiots who were attempting to keep something they were obviously not prepared or had the mental capacity for.
