Disheartening!

lordkovacs · 11-06-03, 11:06 PM

I was speaking to a parent of one of the seven year old girls I teach the other day. In our classroom we have a pet cornsnake. The father knew this and decided it necessary to tell me a story. They own a farm outside of St. Catharines Ontario, and much of it is tall grass. He said that for the past few years he has run into problems with snakes. I said, "what kind of problems". He said "It just seems that they keep coming back." I said, "Where do they keep coming back from? He answered...get ready....

"I keep killing them with my machete and they're still around!"

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh

I remained calm and asked "How come you need to kill them?" He told me that he didn't know if they were venemous and that he has children. I then asked him to describe it. His description was of a small garter snake. The size was about 1' at the most.
I guess he's just looking out for his family, but you would think he'd check into it before becoming a butcher!

anyway,
that's all for now...
cheers,
MIKE

Sunrunner · 11-06-03, 11:10 PM

awww see now why we do the educational shows??????
we get this stuff constantly!
But luckily we get to clear these matters up at just even the b- day shows theres usually 30 kids so thats not to bad we make sure they all know the difference by the time we leave!
Kim

lordkovacs · 11-06-03, 11:12 PM

do you do ed. shows sunrunner?

Sunrunner · 11-06-03, 11:14 PM

yup

for a while now

got real tired of hearing stories like the one you just told

lordkovacs · 11-06-03, 11:20 PM

that's great. more people should do that. I personally put on shows for the school i teach at. I allow the kids (around 8 at a time) to visit with my cornsnake and I teach them about snakes in the wild, in captivity, their needs, where they would live in the wild...that kind of thing. the kids in my particular class love the corn snake and help me with the maintenance. It's a great educational tool just to let them see it.
cheers, keep it up!
MIKE

Sunrunner · 11-06-03, 11:26 PM

I agree 100% change their attitudes while they are young

And hope for a better future with them.

Linds · 11-07-03, 12:33 AM

Eep!

I hope you educated him! What's the future look like? Yeesh... wish I had the same problem he did. I'm like 10 minutes away and haven't seen a garter in years and years. The last time was probably 5 years ago. Best I can find are bullfrogs and painted turtles at the conservation area

SerpentLust · 11-07-03, 12:39 AM

I'm planning on doing educational shows

Jenn

justinO · 11-07-03, 01:42 AM

good that you are educating whoever you can. there is a guy i chat with occasionally that lives in australia. we were chatting about snakes and stuff, and he was telling me on how he kills everything that comes near his farm to protect his children and his chickens. he said he wants his children to grow up afraid of snakes. I asked him why, and his response was "cause there are venemous ones, and better safe then sorry."

i was able to convince him to try to safely educate his children on which ones are "good" and which are "bad". i think some education is better then none at all!

sorry for the rambling.

Justin

Yness · 11-07-03, 02:05 AM

I told my nephew that we could bring my snake for show and tell one day...he is seven

I hate to hear that the only "alternative" is mass slaughter. When i was a kid my dad had squirrells in his walls and he set a bunch of mouse traps up to kill them. Every day my brother and I checked the traps and set them free. My dad was confused but eventually (i hope) the squirrells just got sick of getting trapped and left....to this day my Dad doesn't know!

liltattyprinces · 11-07-03, 07:08 AM

That is soooo madding is that even a word...lol... when i lived on a small farm with my grandparents we never ever killed snakes we knew that they were a benifit to us as well as the animals we kept as they keep down the rats and mice. If we were splitting wood and came across a rat snake or anyother for that matter it was moved so as not to be accidently injured by the ax or flying debris. We would even take in the injured one like the one with the broken tail (thanks to a neighbour throwing it against a rock) Grannie wasn't too happy about him staying in the house but he did till he was better enough to be realised in our barn....just cna't believe that some people still don't see what a benefit these lovely creatures are to our enviroment

Laura-Lee L

brig · 11-07-03, 11:09 AM

It's so sad.
The guy's so lucky to have snakes of ANY kind around. In my whole life, I've seen ONE British adder, in some woods, and that's more than most people here. My idea of field hunting is a trip to the local reptile store - and I'm not kidding.

The other thing that always freaks me out is... why are there so many millions of people, all over the world, who live in places where venomous creatures live, and they've never bothered to learn what the local dangerous species look like?

I've seen this when Steve Irwin rescues snakes in Australia - "oh, it's brown and long, and we don't know what it is... can you come and get it out of my house?". WELL, LEARN!!! And if it's safe, pick up the snake and put it outside yourself!!!

And there are endless threads on here, and news stories, from across the states and Canada.

Are people really THAT stupid? No, don't answer that!

I mean, I went on holiday for two weeks to Florida last year, bought a book on Florida reptiles, and I think I could recognise most Florida snakes, give or take - at least I'd know a coral from a king!!! LOL!

Sorry - got taken over by a rant then... climb down from soapbox... LOL.

Anyway, keep educating the fools, every bit has to help, doesn't it?!

Peace,
Brig.

lordkovacs · 11-07-03, 11:18 PM

some people I guess just have no interest in educating themselves. it's really sad.