My blogfriend Kat's healthy, well-informed attitude towards snakes is an inspiration to me. She knows to watch out for them, but She doesn't panic at the sight of them nor seek to kill them.
Lately my state seems to be racked with snake-a-phobia. I overheard someone at a meeting last week express relief that another friend had run over a snake in their neighborhood. My nephew-in-law,who does maintenance work at an apartment, told me with great exaggerated gestures the other day, about how he had deliberately run over a "big copperhead snake" with his riding mower and "chopped it all up."
When I conjectured that perhaps what he saw might have been a harmless black snake, gestures of annoyance were sent my way and insistence that indeed, it was a copperhead.
Now I know that copperheads and water mocassins do live in my area. I also know that they don't seek out people and are part of a snake population that also includes serpents of a non-venomous nature. I have hiked the swamps and hills of my surrounding woodlands for more than ten years and failed to see a single snake, whether venomous or non. In other words, we are hardly in peril.
And I really get annoyed with people who kill a harmless, even beneficial creature, just because it is a snake.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Snake-a-phobia
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2 comments:
Not a big fan of snakes but it's true that they are not a threat in most situations and should be left alone and left alive.
By the way, I liked your previous post too. False or incorrect quotes are spreading even faster these days due to "cutting and pasting" on computers and on the internet.
My youngest is a big snake fan, and all through H.S devoured "Reptile" magazine...It really frosts him when people needlessly kill creatures who were probably minding their own business. Through him I have learned that the snakes that frequent our garden are beneficial, in that they eat vermin....So, while I'm not about to cozy up to them, I'm willing to live and let live.....
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