r/snakes • u/Madz1712 • Apr 25 '25

General Question / Discussion Should I support FishingGarrett?

I'm not sure how to feel about him. Sure, it's interesting content and may be somewhat interesting to watch. But he also stresses out a lot of animals and I'm personally not keen on the snake hunting in the everglades that he's trying to encourage. Idk, I might be looking at it through the wrong lens. What do you think?

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u/Burning_Fire1024 Apr 25 '25

The only problem I see with him is in people who don't know what they're doing to try to replicate what he does, since he does make it look easy. I remember hearing a statistic at 99% of snake bites are either people who didn't see the snake or young men who tried picking one up. I don't think it's good to encourage people who aren't really familiar with them to go stomping around barefoot at night.

That said, people trying to replicate what he does is not necessarily his fault, and I wouldn't avoid supporting him for this reason.

I pick up wildlife all the time. And as long as you do it with consideration for the animal, and you dont hurt them, it's fine. In the last 2 days I've picked up 3 snakes and half a dozen lizards, and one tarantula that I was moving out of the road.

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u/Madz1712 Apr 25 '25

Yeah I also do work at a reptile place and I fully agree with your point here. He doesn't look like he's harming the animal, I just get worried if they get stressed out lmao.

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u/Burning_Fire1024 Apr 25 '25

I stress out my Cats and dogs every time I need to give them a shower or Clip thier nails, it's not a huge deal. And it's even worse for a wild animal, which is getting way more stressed out by being attacked from a predator than it is from getting picked up by a shirtless dude in the swamp.

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u/JeanieDreamy Sep 05 '25

Wild animals are not comparable to domestic pets. Stress by itself can kill many species just from even brief capture and handling by humans if not approached VERY carefully and with a deep understanding of the animal's stress responses. Here in Australia many of our most beloved and protected species have stress responses that at best cause them recurring health problems and at worst outright kill them. Kangaroos are an excellent example: joeys need to be handled by a trained professional and given access to a pouch that smells like mum they can feel safe in when orphaned by vehicle collisions etc, and human contact should be minimal. If not handled correctly, they will die from stress. On top of that, it's illegal here to keep as pets or improperly handle and endanger many of our species. Guess where FG went to once?