Cool article - unfortunate picture of pet shop owner

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/93739869.html
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Story Created: May 13, 2010
Story Updated: May 14, 2010


Exotic Animal Expert: "Anacondas Are Alarming!"


By George Mallet


WAUWATOSA - Darren Pittman watched the video of a coterie of creatures pulled from two south side homes closely. His eyes focused immediately on one super huge serpent.

"That's an anaconda," he said raising his eyebrows.

Forget the alligators and water dragons; the owner of Aqua Terra pet store calls the site of a 20-plus foot long anaconda "alarming."

"Anaconda's crazy," he said shaking his head. "I mean you are asking for all kinds of problems."

Pittman sells a lot of snakes including pythons and boa constrictors. His snakes are fond of eating mice and rats. He maintains a full-grown anaconda has a far more awesome appetite.

"Once they get large enough, they can eat goats," he said emphatically. "I mean, it's a huge animal."

TODAY'S TMJ4 asked the longtime animal dealer what inherent risks there are in having an anaconda.

"Death," he said grimly. "That's number one: death!"

I happen to like snakes. I am not a fan of pets that can kill you. This not only applies to large or venomous snakes but animals like pit bulls as well.
My grandfather caught rattlesnakes for an antivenom lab.
I remove snakes from garages, yards, and a kitchen once. I could say I do it for the people but I really consider that I am providing a service for the snake. If someone like me does not remove them then the alternative is often someone bashing them in the head with a shovel.

I've always been fond of snakes. Little ones, though, not big scary ones.

My first snake was a little emerald garter, named Hesper. I just loved her.


(Yeah, that pet store owner must be like, christ, you couldn't choose a better shot than that?!)

Ha ha tapu - poor pet shop guy. The vanity in me is torn to pieces feeling his pain!

Snakes? OK - they don't frighten me but I don't like them; I realize they are necessary. When I was trying to upgrade my patio I found TWO baby snakes about the size of large worms and in fact thought they were worms at first glance. Because you never know what kind of baby snake it is and I was raised in rattlesnake country - I was very careful to just scoop them up in the shovel of dirt and transport them further away from my place and dump them. I figured they were probably just garter snakes (but they ugly brown little suckers) and would eat other pesky things.

As far as these big snakes that people are buying as pets - I think it should be illegal. Florida is having a problem with people letting them go and they breed. As if being alligator infested isn't bad enough they have to worry about snakes because of idiots. Let these snakes live in their own environment man - they aren't supposed to be domestic and I think it's mean to keep them as pets.

Awesome job Ziggy. Glad you transported them rather than chopping them to bits.

Point of fact: there are no poisonous snakes in Maine. Not that that's reason enough to live here.

tapu wrote:Point of fact: there are no poisonous snakes in Maine. Not that that's reason enough to live here.

Interesting bit of Maine trivia. There are none in Hawaii either which I always found to be odd considering that they have tropical rain forrest.

We have a bunch of snakes around the yard -- usually just rat snakes. We used to find pygmy rattlesnakes a lot around here, when they were developing the nearby properties. I did see a man from one of the utility companies on the side of the road the other day, using a shovel to kill a rattlesnake. It was a VERY LARGE rattle snake, and he was in a residential area. It was one of the larges rattlesnakes I've ever seen.

Weird that we were talking about snakes . . . and we found a 3-foot eastern diamond back rattlesnake in the backyard yesterday. Actually, our cat found it. He was about to pounce on the snake and the snake was about to strike the cat. Luckily my husband was working outside and heard the rattle. I was surprised at the loudness of the rattle. We killed it.

A friend told me that we were having a lot of these snakes showing up around here in the past month. I wonder why, and if our unusually cold winter had something to do with it.

Kay wrote:Weird that we were talking about snakes . . . and we found a 3-foot eastern diamond back rattlesnake in the backyard yesterday. Actually, our cat found it. He was about to pounce on the snake and the snake was about to strike the cat. Luckily my husband was working outside and heard the rattle. I was surprised at the loudness of the rattle. We killed it.

A friend told me that we were having a lot of these snakes showing up around here in the past month. I wonder why, and if our unusually cold winter had something to do with it.

Glad your cat is okay.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/05/31/dnt.rattlesnakes.bites.kusa?hpt=C2
For Kay

Scott wrote:http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/05/31/dnt.rattlesnakes.bites.kusa?hpt=C2
For Kay

OMG! I wonder why these incidents are on the rise? At least now I know what symptoms to look for. Thanks, Scott.