Amy Pollick from THE DECATUR DAILY called me on Monday. I was very busy cleaning my snake cages, but I took about 15 to 20 minutes to talk to her. Some stupid redneck in that area had killed a “velvet rattlesnake” near his house and he wanted an article in the paper about it. I tried to discourage her from doing it, but when I seen she was determined to do it, I gave several usable quotes to discourage people from killing indigenous snakes. So as to make sure there was no misunderstandings, I told her that I wanted some quotes in the article describing the actual nature of the snake and not what these morons were spouting out. She ran the article with no true information about the animals and even quoted a fool who said these snakes will not wait, they come and attack you. I have included her email, if anyone else is as troubled by this as me by this, please drop a line and let her know.
This is the email I sent to Amy and the author.
TO:
Amy.Pollick@decaturdaily.com rthomas@decaturdaily.com
Amy, I could not be more displeased with your article. Why did I take time out of my schedule to explain why snakes should not be killed, just to have you print an article praising the actions of the man killing a snake? The information was inaccurate. The snake was not coming for the girl and the comment by the neighbor was complete ignorance. The snake had ample opportunity to bite both children and instead left them in peace. You choose to print a quote from someone who has never studied snakes and omit all comments from me, even though I have 15 years experience with the animals. Articles like this are the reason we hate to work with the press. I wish you had not sent me this, I would have been much happier never knowing what was written. ----Chuck
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