Dog owners killing snakes

[snakehandler]

I was just on another forum...one for dogs, and a woman from WA has been bragging how she pinned the tail of a dugite to the ground with a pitch fork and then proceeded to kill the snake with a series of blows.

Talk about animal cruelty, NO animal deserves to be treated in such a manner, her excuse.....it was going to hurt her dogs....if theres a snake around she will kill it and is proud of it. She goes on to say she is an animal lover but snakes are not animals in her mind and must be erradicated.....

Imagine if we had that opinion of dogs who endangered children....

 

[euphorion]

wow, that's a bit sad isn't it? i hope someone gives her a bit of a boot up the backside to bring her round. and yes, imagine if we treated dangerous dogs that way *rolls eyes* some people are so narrow minded!

 

[Fireflyshuffle]

Thats terrible. you should report such an act. is there any details on her?

 

[Rainbow-Serpent]

That is horrible, I love both snakes and dogs, if a snake was about to hurt my dog, I would take my dog away from the snake and he would be in trouble for going too close.

 

[JasonL]

No suprise, my next door neighbor thinks like that, he kills every snake that comes into his backyard, even though I offered to remove them for him. I wonder how many snakes die daily during the warmer months from the shovel brigade... 1000's?

 

[horsesrule]

This is a topic that angers me with uneducated dog owners.

I own 2 dogs and there is everychance with where i live and the development that is happening near by i will get snakes in the backyard.

But i see it like this snakes were here first! so if one of my dogs did get bit by a snake and died i would not be angry at the snake. We are pushing these animals out of there homes its no wonder this is happening.

I see snakes biting dogs or cats for that matter as part of nature.

 

[snakehandler]

The sad thing is that despite snakes being protected by law there is a clause that states, if you believe you or your animals are under threat you can kill the snake. BTW she owns dogs that people see as dangerous!

If a person feels they must kill the snake, at least be humane about it....if this was a cat or dog there would be serious uproar about it, but "its just a snake" to far too many people.

 

[Sdaji]

It's sad that people still feel it is their duty to kill every snake they see. For many people this seems to include snakes which are completely minding their own business or actively fleeing from people. If the law says it's fine if the person believes they are in danger, there's really nothing which can be done, as people seem to think that even if a snake is scurrying into the nearest hole or bushes, it is planning to kill them.

 

[moosenoose]

Imagine if we had that opinion of dogs who endangered children....

Same scenario as far as I'm concerned.

I always tell people who brag about killing snakes the ‘made up’ story of how I bludgeoned to death a neighbours Border Collie because it looked as though it was going to jump the fence and hurt my kids :twisted: ….it always gets the reaction I’m after!

Just tell the story with a dead-straight face and don't mention you like snakes!

 

[Emzie]

thats horrible i cant believe someone could do that. she’d probably be one of those people that would have an outcry if her dog had to be put down for biting someone

I grew up near bush and my mum hates snakes cant even mention the word near her yet we were brought up to leave the snakes alone and they wont hurt you and all our dogs were taught to stay away from them

 

[Sdaji]

Same scenario as far as I'm concerned.

I always tell people who brag about killing snakes the ‘made up’ story of how I bludgeoned to death a neighbours Border Collie because it looked as though it was going to jump the fence and hurt my kids :twisted: ….it always gets the reaction I’m after!

Just tell the story with a dead-straight face and don't mention you like snakes!

I sometimes do the same thing, but I use a koala. Something like:

<guy at pub> I killed a huge blacksnake the other day, it was out near the BBQ.

<Sdaji> Right on! Australian wildlife is horrible! Good work! I killed a koala last week, I threw wood at it until it fell out of a tree, then I kicked it to death! Obnoxious little wannabe bear!

<guy at pub> :shock: What? That's sick, you ****ing psycho!

<Sdaji> But you just said you hated wildlife.

...and so on.

The point usually hits home, at least to some extent, although I'm sure many still go and kill snakes again.

Yes, of course I have never actually killed a koala and viciously killing a native animal is horrible. It's just a story told to highlight what snake killers are doing, and yes, I usually end up telling them that I would never actually killed a koala, after the message has gone through.

 

[-Peter]

Mine always involves the blind owner of the dog being upset but you have to take precautions, what do I know about dogs, labrador? pit bull? a dogs a dog.

 

[cris]

I was just on another forum...one for dogs, and a woman from WA has been bragging how she pinned the tail of a dugite to the ground with a pitch fork and then proceeded to kill the snake with a series of blows.

Talk about animal cruelty, NO animal deserves to be treated in such a manner, her excuse.....it was going to hurt her dogs....if theres a snake around she will kill it and is proud of it. She goes on to say she is an animal lover but snakes are not animals in her mind and must be erradicated.....

Imagine if we had that opinion of dogs who endangered children....

Well most dogs will attack or at least investigate snakes and they will often be killed by them, one way of preventing this is by killing snakes, no snakes = no threat. There is some sound logic behind it, but it is quite horrible to ppl like us who think that they should be treated with respect. If the dogs are contained (like most dogs are, as legally required) they are less of a threat to children than dangerous snakes. A dog dying by snake bite suffers far more than that snake would have.

Its as legal as catch and release fishing and really no worse, from a balanced perspective IMO.

Not everyone knows that we are the most rightous in the world and most of these ppl are uneducated morons anyway.

There are solutions to the dog vs snake problem that allows both of them to live, the best IMO is training the dogs to leave snakes alone, there are a number of ways to do this and differant methods would work better on differant dogs. You could also build a snake proof fence to keep them away form your dogs. If snake liking ppl like us suggested better ways of dealing with them rather tha always going on the offensive, perhaps something might be achieved. Unfortunately most ppl are extremely narrow minded about these things(on both sides) and it just makes things worse.

The thing is most ppl have no reason to care about snakes, often because of ignorant attitudes, but some even if smart and well educated simply dont share values similar to ours and would actually be happy if deadly snakes where wiped out. Beyond sentimental value and the ecoligical niche they fill(which would balance out anyway if they were erradicated) they arnt really needed by humans. We need to get the public to like tehm if we want them have any interest in conserving them.

 

[Chris1]

hopefully she'll get bitten by a brown or something one day,...that'll teach her to leave them alone,...!!

wouldnt the authorities be able to track her down thru that site and fine her?
like, shes openly admitting to killing native animals,...!!

 

[snakehandler]

To me the argument is not to kill or not.....it is the cruelty that she displayed.....that is intolerable!

 

[Australis]

hopefully she'll get bitten by a brown or something one day,...that'll teach her to leave them alone,...!!

It wont teach that, it will reinforce the general belief that snakes are nothing but killers.

 

[Shonfield]

Imagine if we had that opinion of dogs who endangered children....

sadly, my dad practically does think that.