LMAO!!!

[pilot_bell777]

Oh...once again I completely disagree. Man can and does upset the balance of Nature; thus the reasons our reefs are disappearsing, our Ozone is depleted, etc, etc....

But hey.....this must just be natures way of balancing things out. Someone who kills and is not conservation minded and some one protects and is conservation minded..............it's all a balance.

If there was no bad in the world, then we wouldn't know what good is....guess theres always got to be a yin to a yang.

Fun Debating with you......at least make snake stew or something when you kill it so it didn't die for nothing! LOL

[CD]

Man cannot upset the balance as we are part of nature just as everything else.

Oh come on, Josh...you don't seriously believe this, do you? Mankind is a blight upon nature...we foul her waters (dumping garbage, oil spills, dead reefs from chemicals, etc...), the air we breathe (factories, car exhaust, etc...), disappearing rain forests, and so on and so on.... NO other animal in nature does this. Just because we are the dominant species, doesn't give us the right to destroy the earth little by little...until there is nothing left.

We have, can, and will eventually totally destroy the "balance of nature" unless we learn from our mistakes before it is too late....currently, we consume, we use, we waste, we war, we overpopulate...all for our "comfort" and "convenience". The only people that were smart enough to be in balance with nature were the American Indians - they actually had a profound respect for nature. Did we learn from them? I think not.

As far as some species of animals becoming a "nuisence", there is a reason for that...we've either
A) Destroyed the natural predators of these creatures, or significantly reduced their numbers.
B) Destroyed their natural habitat.

Pretty simple...right now we are not the solution, we are the problem.

W.

[C.Mydas]

Well I thought it was a funny story, and Im going to stay away from the debate except to say that I agree with Wendy...

To lighten the mood a bit heres another funny sanke story!

I grew up around all sorts of animals including my ball python "Ka." Growing up my mom did animal control so lots of wild animals came home with her until she could get permission to release them in the national park (bobcats, snakes, coyotes and even a domesticated hyena once came home on a regular basis). Point: I've never considered myself 'afraid' of snakes. Until...

I was visiting the in-laws in Pflugerville and a snake (about 4ft) slithered in the nearby grass. I thought "neat" b/c I hadn't had a good look at it yet, just knew it was a snake. So we called the cops, got a broom and a bucket and set out to catch it. I was "Flashlight Girl" b/c it was dark. Let me tell you though that as soon as I got a good look at the snake (some sort of rat snake) me and the flashlight were gone!!! Poor Brian was left standing in the dark with a broom, a bucket and a snake somewhere in the grass.

To this day if its a big fat snake (like a python or a rattler) Im OK but those thin little rat snakes are just plain creepy :sick When you hear of people getting bit its usually those little thin ones like corn snakes or rat snakes that are the culprits, they are just plain mean looking.

To this day Brian doesn't let me live down the fact that I ran (and squeeled like a little girl...which is quite embarassing for me) and left him in the dark....

BTW- we did catch it and a cop came and picked it up to take it out a little farther into the country. (They don't have animal control in Pville)

[RobertG]

mabey it was alex wolf and his basketball team :lol

LMAO!!!!! Good one Gator :lol :lol 8) 8) :lol :lol :lol

Very good one, LOL !! ! :P

[thedude]

I'm going to agree with Joshua on this one. And if you San Antonio folks bring all your snakes and "relocate them naturally" to Austin, I swear I'm out of this club

[Sunhutch]

This debate reminds me of a situation I faced many years ago.

Soon after my wife and I moved into our new home we were bombarded with insects. This being normal since our house was in a new subdivision being built on what was undeveloped land. Our most frequent invader would be, much to my wifes dismay, scorpions. We would find them everywhere at all hours of the day and night. Initially I would just squash 'em or whatever it took to kill them. Then, for some reason or another, I decided to keep one in a old 10gal tank I had lying around. This gave me something to do with all the spiders that would frequent my house as well. I came to have a respect for the predatory skills of the scorpion soon thereafter. So, soon after it came to be that instead of killing the scorpions I would capture them (again, much to my wifes dismay) and release them in a field in the vicinity of our home. Well, one day I got lazy and instead of releasing the scorpion in the field I decided to chuck it on the other side of the fence in my backyard. The next day my wife goes to get the mail at the mailbox which is on the other side of the fence not to far from where I dumped the critter. She walks barefoot through the yard and I hear her scream bloody murder. Yep you guessed it, scorpion sting to the foot!!! Needless to say she wasnt very happy with me after learning about my scorpion rescue operation.

The moral of the story? Heck, who knows? Other than that I can be a big dummy at times I'm not sure.

I do still try to not kill anything if I can help it. On one occasion I found several baby rattlesnakes at my house. I was able to catch them in a bucket and called animal control. They didnt want anything to do with them. I took it upon myself to take them to an isolated area and released them there. If I felt that my family would have been at risk I would have killed them, but I was able to catch them without too much risk to myself and I felt better in the end. They were babies and although I realize they are not harmless I was able to catch them pretty easily.

I can relate to both sides here, however I dont feel that the "kill em all" approach is the most prudent way to go.

[Gator]

ALEX :angry look what YOUand your basket ball team started with that snake

i agree with everyone he should have cut the sanke in half and taken part of it to austin and left part of it where he found it. that way would effect the enviorment everywhere instead of just one place.

the moral to the story is dont play basketball and cut all snakes in half and take part to austin :P :huh :o :lol <_< :P

p.s sorry alex just joking :P

[bprewit]

Man snakes have been debated and will be debated for years! I have heard all different views on snakes in the last 20yrs or so of keeping reptiles and there are always those that chose to kill and those that get ****ed because of it. I can tell you that hantavirus is a pretty bad thing for children and elderly and is transmitted by rodents, also there are no endangered rats in Texas. Also Bubonic plague is still transmitted from fleas that have fed on infected mammals including rodents such as rats. Predatory birds like Hawks and Owls can and do take up the slack from depletion of other predators like rattlesnakes but also nature has a way of limiting the population of things such as birds of prey and keeps their population regulated so as soon as the hawk population increases so does the risk of disease that can wipe out a large part of that population. Natures way of limiting things has been proven time and time again. But you have to understand that nature also has a way of increasing a population. Ranchers have found that when they try and totally wipe out the coyote population from their land the female coyotes begin having larger and larger litters and the population sometimes begins to increase even with over hunting! Josh killing a rattlesnake because he fears for his children is a natural thing but thousands being hacked up at roundups every year is not a natural thing. We screw up the natural balance pretty hardcore due to stupidity not dominance.
Original post was a very funny story though!

[bprewit]

<Also, TP&WD has said many times over that snake roundups haven't shown to decrease the population at all>

edited my post away but please tell me you dont believe that comment?