Two points for me to touch on:
1. Do snakes have feelings? I, being the dictionary "buff" I am, I looked up "feeling" with encarta. It listed about 10 different ways that the word is defined as; only 2 of them mentioned anything about emotion of affection. Those 2 where listed as #6 and #7--anyone familiar with a dictionary knows that the most COMMON usages of a word are listed in numerical order--my point is that, once again, feelings do not have to automatically mean showing love, hate, etc. Reacting to touch is feeling. Somewhere in this thread we got off on this tangent about feeling, but I think it has little to do with it, except personal opinion. Do any of us REALLY know if snakes, or anything for that matter, does or does not have feelings? In the example of snakes, we do not know what transpires in a snakes mind--therefore we cannot completely understand how a snake thinks, or how they may or may not show feelings. For the sake of argument, let me throw this out at you. What if a snake shows affection simply by NOT biting you? Without understanding a snakes brain, we cannot know for sure if it is true or not. We define affection and feelings in direct relation to how we associate with it--hugs, kisses, cuddling, etc. Cats show affection by catching a mouse, and many times, leaving it in your doorway or in your shoes.
When I accquired my adult borneo, I noticed that if I put him on the table, with all my family around looking at him, he went directly to my 8 year old daughter and crawled up and around her neck. Curious, I repeated this "test" many more times, using different people, different times, and different orders around the table. Each time, he went to her. She does not hold him any more than anyone else, she does not even get involved at feeding time or cage cleaning time. In my opinion, therefore, I believe snakes DO have feelings, and possibly even affection. My point is, that NO ONE CAN EVER KNOW completely without being inside a snakes mind.
2. Snake Lady, as much as I enjoy your debates as well, I must comment on something you said earlier in a post. You said that "Second, I think that the snake in general becomes "aggressive"(like you people tend to say although I do not like the use of the word), when and only when the person that owns them doesn't do a good job of keeping and handling them." That may be the case in some, but not all in general. If you were to house a baby CB ARP and a baby CB BP, and handle niether of them for a year, you WILL get bit by the ARP. You MIGHT by the BP. Again, one species is known to be more "aggressive" than the other. That was my point to start with.
There ya go, Snake Lady, you wanted a reply, and I gave you one.
Thanks for listening and lets not forget to keep this from becoming a flame.
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