A Perfect Example of How Irrational Fear/Stupidity Kills Innocent People

[kageri]

I think the thing with the woman and her father is even more disturbing. It's extremely unsettling to think that anyone could be that callous, and even worse when it's someone we're supposed to be able to trust to protect us. I mean I'm guessing the cop doubted the woman was telling the truth, but he could have looked in her car and, y'know, if there's an elderly man lying prostrate in the backseat, she's probably not lying.

By the way, did her dad survive? My faith in the human race is hanging in the balance.

[Ub3rD4n]

Well, we learn something new every day. I'm glad you were here to enlighten me on the subject. It's a little weird that humanity teaches prejudice against snakes, even in an area of the world (such as my own) where there are no snakes. I hope your parents are okay with your interest in snakes now, it'd be a shame if they couldn't accept it, cause (forgive me if I'm being presumptuous) that seems to be a big thing for you.

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by Partymember

the whole thing is ridiculous...if you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO (and i can envision no circumstances in which this applies) kill the snake, use a shotgun loaded with birdshot and change your angle so you're shooting INTO the trunk.

Birdshot, for the uninitiated, has an effective range of MAYBE 20 meters and beyond that is not lethal or even harmful, too much loss in velocity and negligable mass renders it useless past all but the shortest distances. Since cops do have shotguns in their patrol cars, i don't think a trip to the hardware store (or a neighbors house) to get a charge of #8 shot would have been out of the question.

Hell, hit the thing with a baseball bat if you really gotta kill it. Its a snake, not an armored car, a simple smack to the head with a Louisville Slugger would crack its neck.

Very good point,with regards to the shotgun, since every police officer I know DOES carry a shotgun, which is far safer to anyone in the distance and far more effective for dispatching small animals when needed. The article specifically said that the snake was UP a tree, and I'm still trying to figure out how they wound up killing someone below their own level while shooting at something up above unless the bullets ricocheted off a tree limb. I'm a good shot myself, but I would not consider trying to use a handgun to shoot something small that is in a tree, especially in an area where humans are known to be at the time.

On the topic of my parents and my fondness of snakes-my mother is deceased; she died of COPD at the age of 46. My father is a bright person, and he was very receptive to learning about snakes, which he had always thought were evil creatures. He has no problem with me keeping them and has even held one or two himself. My mom never got over her fear of them, but eventually gave up on changing my mind. My grandfather became a staunch defender of snakes and proponent of their importance as pest controllers that were far more effective than cats and much cheaper and safer than using poisons. My brother-in-law, not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, has also become skilled at determining whether a snake is venomous or not and has also come to appreciate their value as pest controllers, since he has horses and barns, and that means mice and rats. I have to share credit with Steve-O on that, though, since the only time I've ever seen my brother-in-law cry was when Steve got killed. All of these people were people who feared and hated all snakes, and believed that the only good snake was a dead one, so if they can change it means that this behavior was indeed learned, not instinctual.

pitbulllady

[Partymember]

even if you hit the snake with a 9mm or .45 the bullet is most defenitley travelling through and well past the snake's head, unless you're using those stupid Frangible "green" rounds (which i don't believe are standard issue to cops)

[koosie]

Since hope for humanity's already disappeared in this thread, at least there's the good news that we'll no longer have those dreadful Yangste River Dolphins in our face anymore.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6935343.stm

It's especially gutting that it was not even a true dolphin but a different member of the Whale family altogether. We're no better here, you should see the stuff we're losing to progress all the time. Idiots don't just come with guns, they have bulldozers, chainsaws and all sorts of things to mess us wild folk around. Tooth and claw, brothers and sisters!

[cartman414]

All of this is depressing, and no doubt usable as further evidence of "devolution" (TM DEVO).

[Partymember]

Originally Posted by cartman414

All of this is depressing, and no doubt usable as further evidence of "devolution" (TM DEVO).

hehe...i'm glad to be rid of those vicious Yangtze Dolphins, though.

[pitbulllady]

Here's the latest article on this cop-kills-kid debacle, reinforcing what I've said all along: the snake in question was a harmless Black Ratsnake, NOT a rattler as the cop and the person calling the police had thought. I can't understand how someone who is not legally blind could confuse the two; it would be like someone who can't tell the difference between a German Shepherd and an Old English Sheepdog, since those two snakes are just THAT different, in terms of appearance. As you can see by the article, police officers can only discharge a weapon at a DANGEROUS animal, and can only discharge a weapon if there is no chance of an innocent person being hit.

http://newsok.com/article/3100915

pitbulllady

[Ub3rD4n]

Man, I heard about the river dolphin thing today in a lecture. Saddening, truly. I mean, we have so little ability to stop these things from going extinct once we start them off.....and in some parts of the world, people are still starting them off.

But I'm probably telling you nothing you don't already know.