At the Festival, we set up our booth, took out the remaining snake, an eastern hognose, and began showing it to visitors. My oldest son loves the job of snake-handler and took the first shift. For the next four hours we bit our tongues and answered all queries politely, providing visitors with interesting facts about Hognose behavior. Fortunately for them, for me, AND for the snake, this urge was short-lived as I began to consider why this was happening. Mature, scientific, analytical reasoning afforded the following explanation.
Most people don t want to know more than diddle about snakes.
I can do nothing about the fact that some are poisonous, but I can deal with points 1 and 2. In columns past, I have addressed the idea that learning more about snakes might turn fear into interest, loathing into respect. I am not asking that you love snakes, only that you recognize that they play a role in the ecosystem and share the earth with us like every other animal. More people die of hypothermia each year than of snake bites. No, but you must respect what it can do to you.