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Posted by Wendy on January 11, 2002 at 14:13:45:
Hi Everyone,
I know that this is the iguana forum, but you are all involved with the hobby and I am sure you have experienced at least one incident like I'm going to write about here. I'm not sure if the almost constant negativity and ignorance is as bad towards iguanas as it is towards snakes, but I'm sure that you all will have some good advice for me!
I have been thinking more and more about Sunny (my 7 month corn snake) doing educational shows. He and I have been working to get him used to all kinds of different of situations. We started with small things, like just with me having him with me while I do things in the house (homework, reading, walking around, working on the computer, cleaning etc.). He and I also would go for short walks outside in the summer time, once we went to the next house up the dirt road past ours to go show their freinds. When we were there we did almost like a 10 minute mini educational show. Then, I would bring friends over and they would handle him sitting on my bed while I was there so he could get used to different people. Sunny was also used for a video that me and three friends did, while we were working on this, he was handled by all of them. On Halloween we handed out treats together and he saw about 30 different people. Just recently we made a trip into town with him because my dentist was looking to get a reptile for his son and was intersted to meet Sunny. While we were at the dentists he was touched by the dentist and several of the ladies there. On the way out to go home, I ran into a friend in a store, he was one of the one's who suggested the name Solaris, so I had to show him to him! While Scott was looking at Sunny, a few of the clerks came over to look at him.
Sunny has taken ALL of this in stride, never gotten stressed and actually seemed to enjoy it all. I decided that the next step would be to take him to my school one day after school when there were not too many people there.
Here comes the part that made me soooo mad! I wanted to be a good girl and not offend anyone by just showing up with him, I didn't want to scare anyone. So, today I went to ask my principal if he thought it was okay. I went to talk with him and no sooner had I said "You know I have a pet snake, and I was wondering if it would be okay if he came to school...." he cut me off and laughed! He laughed REALLY hard! I was trying to be polite, so I said "He really does have a great personality". The principal laughed even harder! He said "Great personality, I'm sure!" like he didn't beleive me. I tried to explain why I wanted to bring him here, and that it would be good for some of the kids to see that snakes aren't evil. By now, he was laughing so hard he was crying! Then (this is the bad part) he made a joke that really made me upset. He said (trying to get enough air between laughs) "Can we cut him up and disect him?" Where in the world does he think he can get away with that? This is my PET we were talking about! He wouldn't go saying that if I was talking about a kitten or a puppy. He is my PRINCIPAL! He should be someone who is understanding and not judgemental. This is one of those people who thinks that every single kid is on drugs. Shouldn't he be applauding our intrests? Not blowing us off like we are crazy? I don't know what to do! Why do people have to be so ignorant!?!
How do you deal with people like this? What do you say? Do you just ignore them or what? Please help!
Anyway, I went to find the vice, she is really scared of snakes, but she understood where I was coming from, gave me a few very reasonable conditions that I had all ready been planning to do, and gave me permisson.
Please tell me what to do and how you deal with the almost constant negativity directed towards reptiles. Thanks as always, Wendy
