[GRAPHIC] Decapitated snake head bites it's own body - footage.

[Striker]

Would you remove a venomous snake from your backyard if you had a young child that was too young to teach about snakes? I am in no way condoning killing snakes but I would remove a venomous snake from my backyard. Also your analogy with cars is a little off, I certainly tried my best as a parent to keep my kids away from the road to avoid being run over and moved onto teaching them road safety when they were old enough.

As I said if it's in your house then maybe something has to be done. If it's in your yard then you probably live somewhere rural, in which case how many are in your yard that you don't even see? Killing it achieves nothing. There may be more already in the vicinity, or if not there probably soon will be once this one is killed and gone. I probably wouldn't let the kids play in the yard while the snake was there. And your comment demonstrated exactly why my analogy with cars is perfect, rather than off. Your key points demonstrate this: "would you remove a snake if you had a young child that was too young to teach about snakes?" As I said above I'd probably move the child. Not unlike if the kid wanted to play on a highway. It's a lot easier to move the kid than it is to stop the cars and divert the traffic to a different road. Additionally you state you tried your best to "keep your kids away from the road to avoid being run over and moved onto teaching them road safety when they were old enough". Similarly why not try your best to keep your kids away from dangerous snakes and move onto teaching them animal safety when they are old enough? I really fail to see the difference in logic and disagree completely that my analogy is "off", particularly when you have inadvertently demonstrated exactly why it is a good one. There are no guarantees in life. Killing a snake doesn't change that fact. Neither will killing a passing motorist. It might be next snake or car that gets the kid....

 

[Pitttownboy]

Everyone is forgetting this snake is not classed as deadly so what child was he saving. Does he kill all the bees in the bush just in case they sting. Unfortunately people will move to the bush to be close to nature then kill all the nature they don't like, my children from a very early age have been taught if its brown leave it be if its red and black take a look or some photos then shoo it back into the bush. My children have many redbelliephotos and have never been in danger. I wonder how many copperheads are around that he hasn't seen, damn hicks

 

[Lawra]

LAWRA - maybe it was bad wording , however Hamaliciuos pretty much has , there is no ifs, buts, or maybes

you touched on instincts now my instincts may not be the same as yours but when i was a kid living in the cane fields they used to do burns just before they harvested it , in this burn off there would be a whole heap of rats , lizards snakes etc that would come out from the burning cane , as the cruel little kids we were we used to go around armed with golf clubs and try to hit the rats fleeing the fire

one day during a burn i was standing up the embankment on the road waiting for rats when the next minute a rather large snake of some sort came up the embankment and was about a meter infront of me when i noticed him , i INSTINCTIVELY ( being a key word to this story ) stained my pants and leapt back , the snake then got in a defensive position so i stayed back , it then changed its direction and left me alone


i would like to hear from others who have genuinely found themselves in similar situations ( being startled by a snake in close range to you , not one that was slithering through your back yard so you decided to be a hero and "save" your family ) and what your instincts where , did you instantly turn to a fight for your life type mind set or did you try to remove yourself to safer ground

Should I possibly add that I've never killed anything bigger than a mozzie? I used the word "would" not "have. No hate, please. I was only putting forward my opinion.

 

[princessparrot]

My dad read this and agreed and thought it was funny:shock:... Not impressed!:evil:

 

[Hamalicious]

A family I am very close friends with moved into their new house yesterday, they are now living in rural SE Qld. They specifically asked me to come over, walk around the property with their 3 kids (all under 10) and teach them how to avoid snakes, what to do if they see one and what to do if they get bitten, I then went over what to do in case of a bite with the parents.

Killing a snake doesn't make you a hero, you're not saving your family, you are just another part of the problem. Making sure you and your family are educated and ready to act in case of an imergency makes you a hero and a good parent. I wish more people were like this family.

 

[andynic07]

As I said if it's in your house then maybe something has to be done. If it's in your yard then you probably live somewhere rural, in which case how many are in your yard that you don't even see? Killing it achieves nothing. There may be more already in the vicinity, or if not there probably soon will be once this one is killed and gone. I probably wouldn't let the kids play in the yard while the snake was there. And your comment demonstrated exactly why my analogy with cars is perfect, rather than off. Your key points demonstrate this: "would you remove a snake if you had a young child that was too young to teach about snakes?" As I said above I'd probably move the child. Not unlike if the kid wanted to play on a highway. It's a lot easier to move the kid than it is to stop the cars and divert the traffic to a different road. Additionally you state you tried your best to "keep your kids away from the road to avoid being run over and moved onto teaching them road safety when they were old enough". Similarly why not try your best to keep your kids away from dangerous snakes and move onto teaching them animal safety when they are old enough? I really fail to see the difference in logic and disagree completely that my analogy is "off", particularly when you have inadvertently demonstrated exactly why it is a good one. There are no guarantees in life. Killing a snake doesn't change that fact. Neither will killing a passing motorist. It might be next snake or car that gets the kid....

I think we will have to agree to disagree as you seem to be missing a lot of my points. All the way through I have said that I do not condone killing snakes and that I have taught my kids how to act around reptiles. I also do not live in a rural or semi rural area so that point is invalid. I have a back yard that is fenced off and that kept my kids off the road when they were small. I also only see maybe 4 snakes in my yard a year and maybe one or two of them would I consider dangerous and by dangerous I do not limit that to snakes that can kill, venom can do a lot of damage to a child's flesh and nervous system. When my kids were small I would catch and relocate the ones I considered dangerous. You also asked why I could not keep my children away from these snakes, this is because they have a yard to play in and I am not keeping my kids locked up inside the house. This is how I raised my kids and if you think that it is unsuitable then that is your opinion and you have the right to do things differently but not to tell me that I am wrong.

 

[DisturbedDave]

As I said if it's in your house then maybe something has to be done. If it's in your yard then you probably live somewhere rural, in which case how many are in your yard that you don't even see? Killing it achieves nothing. There may be more already in the vicinity, or if not there probably soon will be once this one is killed and gone. I probably wouldn't let the kids play in the yard while the snake was there. And your comment demonstrated exactly why my analogy with cars is perfect, rather than off. Your key points demonstrate this: "would you remove a snake if you had a young child that was too young to teach about snakes?" As I said above I'd probably move the child. Not unlike if the kid wanted to play on a highway. It's a lot easier to move the kid than it is to stop the cars and divert the traffic to a different road. Additionally you state you tried your best to "keep your kids away from the road to avoid being run over and moved onto teaching them road safety when they were old enough". Similarly why not try your best to keep your kids away from dangerous snakes and move onto teaching them animal safety when they are old enough? I really fail to see the difference in logic and disagree completely that my analogy is "off", particularly when you have inadvertently demonstrated exactly why it is a good one. There are no guarantees in life. Killing a snake doesn't change that fact. Neither will killing a passing motorist. It might be next snake or car that gets the kid....

Unfortunately snakes still turn up in metro areas. I don't live on what I would call big land (under 1000sqm), and am surrounded by housing, no paddocks in sight, yet I have had a couple of snakes found in my backyard. My parents, on a similar sized block, have also found a snake in theirs.
I do not condone the killing of snakes, as mentioned in my post, my option was, and still is, to call a snake catcher to relocate it. Personally, I'm not going to leave it in my backyard, as I often entertain out there. I don't believe it will just 'move on' in a timely manner.
That being said, if the snake then starts making its way towards the house, and I can safely arrest it, whether it be dropping a container over it, I will do so, and leave it there until a catcher can attend.
The guy in the video has done the wrong thing, I in no way agree with it. Problem is, not everyone is educated on snakes, and rightfully, presume that all are deadly. I would prefer to suspect something is deadly if I'm not sure, and keep that extra distance. These people also believe that snakes are agressive, and will chase you, while, we all know this is not true.
Until there is a nation-wide education program on snakes, which obviously isn't going to happen, you'll still have people making the wrong decisions.

Thankfully, majority of people aren't sadistic, and are petrified of snakes, and will do what everyone should be doing; back away slowly and get someone to do something about it.

 

[Lawra]

I agree, more education would definitely not go astray.

 

[Paintbrushturkey]

Sigh, and another tard that thinks he is god's gift to the world, hope he get's nailed the next time...

 

[Striker]

I think we will have to agree to disagree as you seem to be missing a lot of my points. All the way through I have said that I do not condone killing snakes and that I have taught my kids how to act around reptiles. I also do not live in a rural or semi rural area so that point is invalid. I have a back yard that is fenced off and that kept my kids off the road when they were small. I also only see maybe 4 snakes in my yard a year and maybe one or two of them would I consider dangerous and by dangerous I do not limit that to snakes that can kill, venom can do a lot of damage to a child's flesh and nervous system. When my kids were small I would catch and relocate the ones I considered dangerous. You also asked why I could not keep my children away from these snakes, this is because they have a yard to play in and I am not keeping my kids locked up inside the house. This is how I raised my kids and if you think that it is unsuitable then that is your opinion and you have the right to do things differently but not to tell me that I am wrong.

We actually don’t need to agree to disagree as we are saying the same thing. ie. Don’t needlessly kill snakes. I am not out to offend and certainly not suggesting you are doing or have done anything wrong. My original point was simply what I said: I get tired of hearing the “I’ve got kids” excuse as a reason to kill a snake. I then used an analogy of cars and shooting at motorists as a ludicrous example to illustrate a ludicrous practice that commonly occurs (a practice we all witnessed in the video provided by the OP where the snake obviously didn’t need to be killed). Obviously I also used my car analogy in an attempt to be a bit light-hearted.
Of course there are exceptions to my “don’t kill snakes” philosophy and if you challenge me enough with hypothetical scenarios where my kid is tied up and a gang of snakes are approaching (or whatever circumstance we want to make up) you will always reach a point where I have agree that Yes, I’d kill one under certain circumstances. But people always come up with extreme and rare examples to legitimise common acts. Snake killing is common in Australia. The need to kill them is uncommon. Many of the people who kill them can be heard at parties making jokes that "the only good snake is a dead one.” Then they kill in a circumstance where they walked into a paddock, saw a snake in the distance, ran in the opposite direction back to their garage or shed, grabbed a shovel then ran toward the snake and killed it by cutting off it’s head. Later when the same idiot is told by someone like you or I that their act was dangerous and a pathetic, needless attempt to be a hero, the most common response we will hear is, “well I’ve got kids and snakes are dangerous”. This is the common scenario. This is the scenario I make reference to when I criticise those who use having kids as an excuse to be a moron.
Your scenarios in your yard are the rare ones where you attempt to remove, relocate and educate in the first instance, but may have to kill in some circumstances. This represents a very small percentage of snake killings. This is not the scenario I am being critical of. No offence was ever intended. And despite how it is all interpreted we’re on the same page.

 

[andynic07]

We actually don’t need to agree to disagree as we are saying the same thing.

Well it seems we are, and your points are exactly what I hear from people at parties and what not as well. I think education is the key and think the government needs to step up with a snake awareness program including school education and advertisements on television. Our native wildlife is under enough threat from habitat destruction without the uneducated slaughtering indiscriminately . I am glad to say that I have never felt threatened enough or had my family threatened enough to kill a snake and think I have enough experience now to safely relocate the snakes in my area (mainly rbb's).

 

[Flexxx]

I gerw up in a small bush town over an hour away from hospital, I had plenty of snakes living and passing through our property, never been bitten (by wild snakes) never had to kill any eather, my uncle taught me all about snakes in the bush as we use to go hunting pigs and rabbits, where there's rabbits thers a high chance of snakes, I would take a few steps back and watch them dissappear into the bush. education in my opinion is the best idea.
I dont belive 'kids' is a good excuse eather, what happens when dads not around and the kids find a snake in the yard, he might go ahead and copy his dad by getting close enough to hit it risking a bite

 

[bigjoediver]

I live on 10 acres and my 7 yo son knows not to go near the wood pile and also what to do if he comes across any wild animals be they snakes lizards or large Roos. Unless something takes up residence in or under the house we leave it be, most times they are only passing through.

Joe