Gary J Sibio
I’ve always been fascinated by snakes since I was 7 years old. When I was 8 I traded my baseball card collection for one. That was almost 60 years ago. I’ve had many pet snakes. In fact the snake in the photo is a pet Ball Python being held by my wife.
A lot of people don’t share my fascination with them. Some just don’t like them, others are terrified. This is called ophidiophobia.
I can’t blame some people for being afraid of snakes. They may come from a part of the world where snakes are deadly. In my opinion, they have a good excuse. Most of us don’t. Snakes do a lot more good than bad, even the venomous ones. In parts of the United States where rattlesnake round-ups have made a dent in the natural population, rodent-borne diseases such as the hanta virus have increased.
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Question of
Have you ever touched a snake?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Have you ever held a snake?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Are you afraid of snakes?
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Yes
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No
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I find them fascinating. I once saw a small one when I was hiking. They don’t touch you unless you touch them 🙂
I’m fascinated by them also.
I have seen a lot of snakes here. I am still scared up to now.
I really do not like anything that slithers or crawl. I am afraid of snakes and that is even if I know they have their use in the world. I especially am very much afraid of pythons for a reason or another. BTW how big is your pet Ball python if I may ask?
She died a couple of years ago but Ball Pythons are relatively small. Males reach about 4 feet and females 5 feet.
When my daughters were about 12 or 13 years old, we went to a reptile exhibit. One person had an 18 foot 300 pound Burmese Python on display in a fenced in enclosure. The snake could easily have just crawled out if it had wanted but the owner had just fed it so it was rather lethargic. My daughters went right up to the thing and started petting it on the head. They had no fear of it even though, if it had wanted to, it could have swallowed me whole. As for me, I had my hand in front of its mouth so its tongue would flick on it. My wife sat that one out.
Ha. Ha! I understand why your wife sat that one out. I would have done the same and probably would have run away.
I am afraid of the snake, although I do not even know why … I do not have any bad experience
A lot of people are like that. They’ve been taught that snakes are something to be feared. Depending on where you live, that might be a good idea.
I’m afraid of snakes… I’m afraid of many creatures though lol
But still admire your fascination with them
I used to be afraid of spiders but then I read an article about them in National Geographic and got fascinated with them as well. Getting to know them is a good way to get over fear.