Mad Spitting Cobra

[Jim Smith]

Beautiful and amazing snake, but I must say, I can't say that I would ever keep hots; ever. As part of my work as an aviation safety consultant, human factors plays a big part of many if not most of the incidents and near misses that take place in the industry. Human factors for those who may not know involves the human limitations we live with as part of being human. It includes such things as fatigue, loss of situational awareness, slowed reflexes etc. The analogy I make to people is to ask them if they've ever driven their car to work or home, and gotten there and stopped to think I can't remember anything about the drive home. I know I made the drive since I'm here, but I couldn't tell you anything about what I saw or experienced on the drive. That's loss of situational awareness. We ALL make mistakes, especially if we're doing something that we've done a thousand times before. My fear of non-professionals keeping hots is that the person will make that small mistake, lose situation awareness, just for a second, and then it happens. They very well may not have proper medical attention available in time and the end result will be a tragedy. I can't help but think that there are two kinds of people that keep hots, those who have been bitten and those that eventually will. I agree that they are amazing animals, beautiful and fascinating but simply not worth the risk of keeping them as pets. Sorry for the long semi-rant, but it's just one man's opinion.