Firstly these people aren't city slickers thrown into the bush, they are country folk, which means they have lived with herps and should know how to handle them. The first thing they should have taught their kids, from as early age as possible, is that snakes are potentially dangerous and not to touch but to tell mum or dad. Secondly they have a croc as a pet and deal with crocs all the time, meaning they should be able to handle a simple baby brown. This would be like showing Steve Irwin killing a snake because it came onto his property.
My inlaws live out near Griffith and everybody in the area of the small town they live in knows how to ID ALL reptiles in their vicinity. My son at 4 told his Poppy not to go into a field because he saw a Brown in there (P.s WE live in Sydney). Admittedly some will kill them but most just shoo them away.
The vast majority of snake bites come from people trying to kill the snake. Attacking the snake is only going to piss the snake off more and force it to defend itself.
Personally, I blame the producers for trying to make the show more interesting (lets bring some danger in to get more viewers) It wouldn't amaze me to find out that the snake was caught and put there for ratings.
A couple of years ago there was a story in the local paper about Spot, the heroic wonder dog in Kellyville, Sydney. The vacant lot next door to their house had a Black, that gave birth to babys that started entering their yard and Spot would kill them all. I rang the paper and told them it was illegal to kill native animals and the family could be fined for this so the paper wrote a second story saying that the family should have called WIRES, the council etc to have all of them removed, not killed. This shows education can go a long way.
In the end the Joneses probably know better, and it is all just a grab for ratings. It is up to us to EDUCATE these producers and write to them telling them that these things are wrong (I am). The best way to hurt them is in the ratings.....Simply don't watch.
