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There’s a guy on Instagram who has two absolutely massive pythons, like 16 feet long and thick as tires. They drape themselves across his young daughter very casually, and she spends time playing Barbies with the big one. The owner is very educated about snakes and obviously takes very good care of them, and isn’t some trash person who just wants violent animals, but much like pit bulls all it takes is one wrong turn and that child could die in a terrible way. I know some pet snakes are very docile, but something that could take it into its head to strangle me for dinner is not a pet to me.
People’s pit bull apologia is bad enough, we had a person in my ER one night who had been walking their friend’s pit bull who they walked often, who yanked the leash when he saw another dog, and when they tried to grip it the dog turned around and began mauling them, and ripped their arm right off. Someone called 911 and the cops showed up and had to shoot the dog and kill it to get it off them, and they took both them and the arm to our hospital but couldn’t save it. My niece is also missing part of her lip because of a pit bull. Those are exotic animals that are extremely dangerous to me, fuck that nanny dog bullshit.
More importantly, with a pitbull it’s mostly about training and handling. But snakes - even the intelligent ones - are very different from dogs. They are way more controlled by instinct and are natural predators of monkeys and young great apes. They are not intelligent in the same way mammals are, their internal machinery can at any point in time simply click with the wrong situation and that toddler is gone.
They do look benign and just curious with the child, I won’t be unfair, and he’s really well versed in their care. I don’t want to make him sound bad or anything, he’s really a nice guy and I’ve asked him some questions he has good answers for. But who wants to run that risk? Those kids in Nova Scotia who died because a pet python escaped its enclosure and climbed into the air vent, fell through the ceiling because it was 100 pounds,and reacted to the screaming kids it fell on top of? That’s terrifying.
The guys yard was 4 lots so fairly nice sized (1 acre?)… Underground tunnels that lead to “satellite” cages for the prairie dogs to keep an eye on the yard. Venomous snake shed(cobras and rattlesnakes) and to top it off a pair of breeding crocodile monitors. A true Florida man.
This isn’t that exotic I guess but I had a customer at the restaurant that would smuggle in his pet rat (I worked the graveyard so usually nobody was around). Its name was Gizmo and it would sit on his shoulder under his sweater and he would feed it French toast. Sweetest little thing.
Did it also use its owner as a marionette to cook linguini?
I saw someone bring their bobcat into a Lowes once. It was on a leash, and you bet I did not trust that leash. It looked overwhelmed.
They were allowed to do that?
Are you gonna stop them?
If I was in that Lowe’s, I would at least ask a manager about them and say “hey, is that alright to be here”. Even if it’s not a safety risk, if it’s in a Lowe’s, it’s probably an allergy risk.
My parents had a zebra when I was growing up in Northern California. He was skittish, to the point that this animal lover never got closer than 10 feet until it wound bolt. He brayed at sunrise, easily drowning out the roosters. He sadly ingested part of a mat in his stall which ended up killing him.
After my parents moved once I left home, they got 2 more of these fancy donkeys.
Pro life tip to people like them: Use non-toxic, specialized decor when sheltering animals.
The best shelters and zoos never have issues like the carpet incident because every big or small aspect and nook and cranny is catered. They don’t buy generic room brands for example.
When I was a kid back in the 70’s there was a woman with a spider monkey who lived in the same trailer park as my grandfather. She rode around on a bike with it on her shoulder and would stop when my sister and I were visiting. We were never allowed to pet it, we’d watch while the lady fed it clovers.
I’m not an animal expert, but I’m fairly certain clovers are not a good diet for spider monkeys.
Oh another post, my friend’s parents had a kinkajou that lived in the couch and pooped from high shelves at night.
Used to have around 50 tarantuals (and some other spiders).
Why fifty?
No reason, that was just the number at wich it steadied out. I guess the room was full, no more space for more terrrariums.
Met a couple with a pet raccoon, on a leash and everything. I asked them how it was, since my wife had fantasized about a pet raccoon. They described it as a “little mischief goblin”.
I’ve seen someone walking a pig in the forest. Yes, a large pink hairless pig. It was almost like walking a dog, but this animal was quite a bit larger than most dogs.
Maybe a truffle hunter?
saw someone with a big ass snake.
Also, I owned a hedgehog once, dude had some serious trauma from his 5 previous owners. Yeah, 5.
He was always angry, but I still played with him anyways trying to get him to warm up to people. Never did, but he did like exploring all the books and crannies of the room. Wish I could’ve had him before all his previous owners :(My nephew has snails. He smuggled them out of the schoolyard in his hoodie after the teachers caught him the first time and confiscated them. My sister found them and had to take them to a pet store to make sure they weren’t dangerous. Now they sit in a nice terrarium and it turns out the hardest part is keeping the humidity up.
Just be glad it wasn’t the immortal snail
All that over snails? Like were they the kind that might’ve lost their way from the Amazon rainforest?
When you live in Brazil, well…yes.
My bestie has an iguana. Not that exotic in the grand scheme of things, even if pretty cool.
So I’m also internet acquainted with a guy that cares for tiger cubs. Except the big kitties aren’t his, he just works at a zoo.
I knew someone who dealt in exotic animals and they came to work with a baby caiman alligator in a Tupperware because they were selling it after work
- caiman
- alligator
These are two different species. While caiman are part of the Alligatoridae family, they are not alligators apparently.
Caimans are distinguished from alligators…
Source:Wikipedia
Let me go back in Time and double check
Alligator is the common name for the family and also the common name of a few specific species. It’s kind of like how all tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles are tortoises. All caiman are alligators, but not all alligators are caimans.
From Wikipedia
Caiman is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within the Alligatoridae family, the other being alligators
Alligatorinae is a subfamily within the family Alligatoridae that contains the alligators and their closest extinct relatives, and is the sister taxon to Caimaninae
Alligators and caimans split about 53-65 million years ago
Alligatoridae contains eight living species: two alligators within Alligatorinae, and the six caimans of Caimaninae
The true alligators are today represented by two species
…the subfamily Caimaninae, which differ from the alligator…
Technically they are Alligatoridae, but when people refer to “Alligators” they mean the Genus: Alligatorinae. This would be like saying that the Caimans and Alligators are both Crocodiles because they come from the Order: Crocodilia.
I understand that common names getting mixed use in families, genus, and species can be confusing, but you’re being willfully obtuse here just to double down on useless pedantry.
Not my fault it says “Alligator and Caiman” not Alligators including Caiman. I’m just a guy reading Wikipedia.
Reading is about more than reciting facts and quoting sources. Sure, you can read, but you have utterly failed to comprehend the context or the article or the actual substance of my comments.
Ok
Was it well behaved?
