Offer to pay me a million dollars, and I still guarantee that I would not allow a snake to take up residence in my house, even for a short while. Snakes scare the life out of me, and I cannot fathom why someone would want to keep one as a pet when they can be so dangerous. After all, they are a wild animal that some people endeavour to keep inclosed in a small glass tank.
The number of reports around on snake attacks on humans and of course other animals is astounding. There are of course your less dangerous types of reptiles that will bite, but will cause no further damage. However, there are many species of snakes that can inflict great harm and pain, or even death when encountered in the wrong way. The Python is one such animal, especially the larger species that have been known to kill with sheer brutal strength. Who would think that a snake looking nice and calm and well controlled could turn in an instance and kill you with a simple squeeze. The Pythons favourite, and probably only way of killing is to actually squeeze the life out of a person. There are many documented attacks where a Python has reared up and bitten a person somewhere on the head, generally the forehead. This immobilises and shocks the victim long enough for the snake to wrap itself around the neck of it's victim and begin to tighten it's hold until the person can no longer breathe in, hence resulting in death. Not a nice way to go. Many people make the claim that "Hey, they're not poisonous," and therefore we are to believe that they are not dangerous. Extremely wrong, these snakes have enough power in their bodies to strangle any human being no matter their own personal strength, and it is not unknown for it to take multiple people to prise these Pythons off once they have claimed their victim.
Then there are the poisonous snakes, and the world is riddled with them. Each country has their own species that are of grave concern to the human race. In Australia we have many poisonous snake ranging from the simple sounding Brown snake to the Tiger snake. In fact Australia boasts that it is home to Eleven of the top fifteen most poisonous snakes in the world. I still remember my mother telling me the story about how her cat had been bitten by a baby brown snake when I as a baby, shortly after we had moved into a newly built house. She heard a strange noise coming from our as yet undeveloped backyard and went to investigate. What she found was our courageous ginger cat playing cat and mouse(or should I say cat and snake) with a brown snake in the corner of the yard. She quickly grabbed the cat and pushed him in the back door and then proceeded to kill the snake with a shovel. Yes, we know that you're not supposed to kill them, but she was frightened, and she had a baby in the house. After killing the snake my mother came back inside only to find the cat paralyzed under the coffee table. Obviously the snake had already got to him. We rushed the cat to the vet, and believe it or not he came home the next day feeling just fine. He learnt his lesson.
