Why?

[cheryl]

OK, you guys have been around a while. Explain something to me. Why do people hate snakes? Even people who love other animals. Is it the whole 'serpent' thing? Gotta figure out how to convince my family to leave my garter snakes alone.

[KITKAT]

I think it is a learned behavior, taught by parents to their kids when the kids are very small.

Well, I never listened very well... HA HA!

[cheryl]

Probably. About the coolest thing I ever saw was a mom and her toddler in a pet store. Baby was sitting on the counter holding a large Boa with the help of an employee. Mom was cowering in the corner, obviously scared silly. Really admired the mom for exposing kid to something she feared herself. And I guess we did grow up with snakes. Mom would have killed us if we had ever hurt any animal. But...some of my siblings hate snakes. Ever construsted a hybernarium?

[abcat1993]

It's just an irrational fear that people have. Even my friend who has a milk snake would be afraid to have a snake over 10 feet living in his room, even though it could barely eat a medium sized dog (so, I guess he might be scared for his cats, who knows?).

[GarterGuy]

Pretty much it's a fear that is taught to us and some of it might be instictual??? It's actually a good survival attribute to be "afraid" of snakes. Snakes CAN kill you, so naturally wanting to leave them alone or get away from them could be considered a good thing. Problem is that this then turns into hate and the thought that they are our enemies....this is where things go wrong. Also, snakes are very "alien" to a lot of people, they just don't know anything about them and people usually fear what they don't understand. I won't eve get into the whole Biblical snake issues, but yeh, they're there too. Like anything else that's "different" though, it just seems easier to fear and hate then to take the time to learn about them and understand them. Unfortuately a lot of people take this stance on a lot of things.
Roy

[Stefan-A]

I think pretty much everybody has a natural fear of snakes, including those of us who keep them. We're definitely not indifferent. I guarantee there are people who have no natural fear of snakes, but they would be insignificantly few.

But we can definitely be conditioned to react in different ways to them. Some of us see a snake and become curious, others want to flee and some people want to attack. Children haven't been conditioned yet, which could explain why they react so differently to snakes. In short: genes + environment.

[Thamnophis]

I agree with the things Stefan says.
It is only common sense (instict) to have some fear for animals that can hurt us.
When you learn to recognise a snake in the wild you can get rid of he fear.
Let's be honest. If you walk in the wild and suddenly there is a Black Mamba in front of you... believe me you get scared.
But prejudice kills a lot of snakes, not fear. I think...

[Thamnophis]

Take a look at this movie...

LiveLeak.com - Kid With Cobra

You can see that the child (one year old) has no fear for the cobra.

Further it is digusting. The beak of the snake is sutured.

[CrazyHedgehog]

I am scared of ants...how stupid is that? but its there, make me leap about like a fool, I know its irrational...but can't help it!

(might have something to do with falling asleep on a large red ant nest that swarmed and bit me to bits when I was about 6)

[cheryl]

So, genes/instinct/past experience. To what extent is it possible to recondition yourself or others? Do I give up and live with the knowledge that a whole lot of people will just automatically kill any snake (and lizard, possum, bat, skunk) that they encounter? Do I continue to offer to relocate these little darlin's to my own yard and become the crazy old lady with all the animals? Do I get a life so I don't have to worry about this stuff?