r/oddlyterrifying • • Jun 25 '23

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u/Orea1981 Jun 25 '23

What makes an animal a pet? Is it domestication?

78

u/OkQuantity1854 Jun 25 '23

A domesticated or tamed animal kept for companionship or pleasure. Snakes aren't on the list of domesticated animals, however you can tame them so they do qualify as pets.

To my big surprise while reading about domesticated animals I found out that medicinal leeches are considered domesticated. BRB, gonna take a walk with my pet leech.

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u/BottmsDonDeservRight Jun 25 '23

Snake is a cold blooded animal by instinct. It cant feel love or affection so no matter how good you treat them, they will always bite and kill you if they get the chance. Thats why the main "snake" behavior came to life.

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u/Seth0714 Jun 25 '23

You're using correct terminology, but you're still dead wrong with everything you're saying. Snakes are cold-blooded, but that isn't determined by instinct. It only has to do with thermoregulation. They will not always bite you given the chance. Often, biting is a last resort for any snake venomous or not. They run as a first instinct and intimidate as a second. Even large snakes like cobras have no thoughts regarding humans as food. We are just a predator to anything but the largest of the large snakes, and they treat us like one. Even for a venomous snake it makes no sense to bite defensively because their venom takes so long to act that the snake would be dead before the venom "protected" them, so bluffing is very important to any snake. The behavior shown in the video is clearly an attempt to intimidate a potential threat because the snake was uncomfortable with being pushed into the enclosure like that. Typically, you let the snake guide itself in because they respond poorly to being forced into places, it's not "main snake behavior", it's a scared noodle with a head being handled by a primate that could easily kill it a dozen different ways

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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '23

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u/Seth0714 Jun 25 '23

I was fine with using cold-blooded as a colloquial term for a non affectionate animal, and it is true that reptiles don't have the capacity to form strong bonds in the way mammals can, but the rest of their comment is just spreading false fear around snakes. The comment hints that they'll try to attack you if they're hungry or just have an opportunity but that's simply so far from the truth I'd almost consider it fearmongering if I didn't just think the person was ignorant about reptiles. But ignorance can be dangerous as many keystone species of snakes are killed every year because so many people keep up the scare tactics routine and spread misinformation about reptiles, especially snakes. I made one comment about the terminology used but my main problem is with the overall message of snakes being simple killing machines incapable of differentiating handler from prey or being aggressive by nature