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Originally Posted by alvaro
I agree. There are people among us that don’t care at all about putting at risk other people’s lives. Not only that of the carriers, but they also sell poisonous snakes to minors and other people that don’t have a clue about how to keep them. Those are at an even greater risk than the carrier’s employees.
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Car dealers also sell automobiles to people who are lousy drivers, or irresponsible drunken drivers. Any suggestions as to what we could do about that without infringing significantly on everyone's privacy and freedom? I would rather not live in an Orwellian society.
I agree that people's rights to own inherently dangerous things should be limited at the point that they are endagering other people. But captive venomous snakes, unlike automobiles, have an incredibly good safety record as far as not being a danger to anyone but their voluntary owners and handlers.
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A woman died a few months ago bitten by her “pet”, a Bothrops alternatus. Don’t get me wrong, I also like (and respect) venomous snakes. But my rights to keep them end exactly where those of the safeness of my neighbor start.
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These two facts don't make a conclusion. A woman who chose to keep venomous snakes was bitten by one. That's what happens sometimes to people who choose to take risks in order to enrich their lives. You cannot conclude that her neighbors were at risk.
The number of innocent bystanders and neighbors who have ever been bitten by someone else's captive venomous snake approaches zero, and in fact may be zero. I'm aware of a few reports, but one was proven false, another has no support evidence and may be false, and the most recent one from Florida involving the tiny, bright colored burrowing snake that supposedly climbed up into a bed to bite a sleeping child is remarkably implausible. No one who has kept Aspidelaps could be easily convinced that the kid wasn't playing with the snake on purpose. A scenario like that is a bad one, but it is fundamentally about the parents' responsibility to keep dangerous but pretty and tempting things locked up.
The press tore the woman with the Bothrops apart and made a lot of insinuations that the snakes were running around the house loose. From what I heard through a less sensationalist source, the house roaming reptiles were iguanas. The venomous snakes were secured in cages.
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Self policing is the way to go. Maybe it will backfire on us, if it does happen so be it. On the other hand maybe we will be respected because we act responsibly.
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I agree that illegal shipping is a serious problem that we need to address within our community, but so is demonizing venomous snakes as a huge risk to the neighbors. Standards of secure and responsible keeping are important for all reptiles, since it is neither humane for the snakes nor good for the ecosystem if any non native animals are allowed to escape. But the historical safety record says that venomous snakes cannot be considered a significant threat to anyone but their owners.
This is not to say that a bad scenario could never happen. It could, and as responsible keepers we should do what we can to use good safety protocol in housing and handling our animals. We should also focus on educating people realistically about what the risks actually are, instead of buying into the exaggerated panic that the uneducated person feels at the idea of being anywhere near a venomous snake.
Venomous snakes don't have wings to fly. Their fangs don't drip human blood and they don't have passkeys on their tails to pick bedroom locks with. They do not have an unerring instinct that directs them to the nearest nunnery or orphanage to slaughter the innocent. We herpers all know this and think this is very funny, but the average person on the street believes things about venomous snakes that are remarkably silly, and that doesn't help our legal climate either.
Bad shipping---I was really upset.
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