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Euthanasia for a Rock Python since its aggressive?

14K views 307 replies 60 participants last post by  Silversnake84 
#1 ·
I have been watching Rhys to the Rescue on BBC iPlayer tonight and I slightly concerned of how Rhys feels about snakes in captivity especially larger species.
Now I agree with him that large snakes are dangerous but a 2ft Rock python should be put to sleep as its aggressive?
I think its great that Rhys tries to take it back to the wild but he has no 100% knowledge it was WC or CF.
I know that they shouldn't be sold willy nilly but there are many keepers who do and will keep large snakes like this safely.
Why couldn't he just re home him with an experienced large snake keeper?

I would love to hear his views on Retics, and I know he keeps burms that he only has as a "rescue".

I know one member of the forum is involved in this, and I think he's a great guy but in my opinion Euthanasia of a snake due to being slightly aggressive is horrid
and would love to hear is views on Rhys's plans.


Like I said I feel Euthanasia is a bit OTT, but I agree they can be dangerous..
Soo see for your self and tell us your thoughts!

BBC iPlayer - Rhys to the Rescue: Episode 4

Thanks
 
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#2 ·
I think that Rhys is a tit.

Its OTT but not many people out there would take it on.
 
#3 ·
i totally agree with you.

for someone who is experianced with snakes, he must know others that are also in the hobby, i felt saddened when he said about killing the poor thing. most snakes as babies are a bit nippy.

you could see it wasnt that agressive, i have seen plenty of agressive snakes before and when they see something moving past them they will strike the glass/plastic, this snake wasnt! it was probably pissed of with being man handled.

poor little guy :(
 
#8 ·
they just large things up on it. I mean there was a autistic lad who had bought 2 baby corns about 9 inches long. (complete hatchlings). And they called 'he snake patrol' :lol2:. Because th cornsnake had bitten him! OMG what a horror :lol2: some people over react. I am not being funny but if you got a massive giant coming towards you might use your only defence mechanism. The cornsnake got taken off him! hahaha i pissed my self :lol2: :devil:
 
#10 ·
Rofl if he is autistic then its hardly suprising he freaked out...People who are mentally challenged can't be expected to act like everyone else.
 
#9 ·
Thing is, aggression is the keepers fault 95% of the time!! unless its WC ofc. I know a guy who takes on "aggressive" snakes and a few days later hes taking in out the viv- no problems, no biting, no issues. The previous owners are always amazed.

People shouldn't buy snakes that will grow large if they fear being struck at.

Also I find people keep snakes to exact temperatures like care sheets and books state, but every snake is different, some like it hot, some like it cooler, some like a massive water bowl, others dont bathe at all.
I dont monitor my temps to the book, i monitor the snakes behaviour and customise it to what they are showing me they like AND I DO NOT USE CERAMICS I despise them!!!. My female retic never bathes my male- you cant get him out and their temperatures are perfect. I keep all my royal pythons at a high humidity - and i have seen a big change in behaviour, i see more of them they all strike feed, one was bought as a fussy eater and i have never had any problems. Amazing.
 
#30 ·
Thing is, aggression is the keepers fault 95% of the time!! unless its WC ofc. I know a guy who takes on "aggressive" snakes and a few days later hes taking in out the viv- no problems, no biting, no issues. The previous owners are always amazed.

People shouldn't buy snakes that will grow large if they fear being struck at.

Also I find people keep snakes to exact temperatures like care sheets and books state, but every snake is different, some like it hot, some like it cooler, some like a massive water bowl, others dont bathe at all.
I dont monitor my temps to the book, i monitor the snakes behaviour and customise it to what they are showing me they like AND I DO NOT USE CERAMICS I despise them!!!. My female retic never bathes my male- you cant get him out and their temperatures are perfect. I keep all my royal pythons at a high humidity - and i have seen a big change in behaviour, i see more of them they all strike feed, one was bought as a fussy eater and i have never had any problems. Amazing.
if you dnt mind me asking what do you class as high humidity thanks:2thumb:
 
#14 ·
How do bbc wales get to have such strong opinions on things? At the start he said that big snakes should not be anywhere near humans and the cop said they shouldn't even be in zoos!! Surely they get tonnes of complaints. What a :censor: :bash:
 
#15 ·
I can't stand the presenter, Rhy Jones. The fact that he's Welsh only makes it worse! :whip:

Considering he is a supposed "Specialist", he does nothing to help our hobby. That show, like the majority, is just about money. And unfortunately, its at the expense of the responsible keepers out there.

There is no need whatsoever to euthanize that African Rock Python. It could easily be re-homed. And it didn't even seem that aggresive. Poor thing. :(
 
#17 ·
I can't stand the presenter, Rhy Jones. The fact that he's Welsh only makes it worse! :whip:

Considering he is a supposed "Specialist", he does nothing to help our hobby. That show, like the majority, is just about money. And unfortunately, its at the expense of the responsible keepers out there.

There is no need whatsoever to euthanize that African Rock Python. It could easily be re-homed. And it didn't even seem that aggresive. Poor thing. :(
I beg your pardon... remember you only live in Newport, I can find you! :lol2:
 
#18 ·
see i really like the program, i think its awesome...and there is no other program like it.

however, it all seems to be a little bit staged to me............i think it was the first epp that really p!ssed me off, the epp with the boa....he was acting like the thing was going to kill him and he had the snake by the neck, but you could see the look on the owners face he was thinking how much of a pratt he was acting over a tame snake!

he seems to be tryinig a bit to hard, which makes him look like a C**K

i like the program, i just dont like the person presenting it...
 
#23 ·
agree with you completly.
I like it but do think it's OTT (as are most things on tv :whistling2:)
I don't agree with killing ANYTHING if it's agressive,we don't kill humans when we are agressive so why kill a snake or a agressive animal? i'm sure there are experienced keepers who will gladly take on a agressive snake.
 
#31 ·
This is TV folks, Entertainment for the masses.
The Rock Python in question will NEVER be Destroyed I can guarantee you you that ! However if it has shocked people it to thinking twice about the conceqences of these snakes in captivity then the comment has done it's job.
Despite what a lot of people might think on here Dr Rhys Jones is extremely Knowledgeable and to be honest has properly forgotten more than most of us even know about Herps.
Rhys has spent many years working with Afrocs in the wild and has seen first hand the Dangers of such large aggressive snakes.
It was infact me who made the orginal rescue of the Python ( one of a pair as it happens, the other one perished at the hand of the Troll that had them).
In my view Afrocs have no place in the average keepers home, many zoos will not take them on knowing the true nature of such snakes, I also believe that these animals do not belong in Zoos in general.

As I stated earlier the snake in question will never be Destroyed ! In fact there is a very good chance that with Rhys's conections we might well be able to have it returned to the wild (DNA test have varified it's place of origin ).
As someone who has Rescued 100's of exotics over many years this would be the ultimate dream for me and quite an achievement.

Rhys is extremely enthusiastic about what he does and I think for the general public this is fine, lets face it even the late Steve Irwin would have struggled to make a series of programs of this sort in Wales !
A Baby Corn on the lose to the reptile community is no big deal but again for the genral public it would be, period.
 
#40 ·
yer i saw this aswell and thought he seemed like abit of a twat really, i quite liked th other episodes, it just seems almost laughable to say that the rock should be returned to the wild though, theres at least 2 gd rep shops in cardiff who would take it off him. Even im in cardiff part of the time and id take it off him in a shot, you can calm any snake down with abit of patience, all that snake needs is someone with abit of basic knowledge and it would probably end up being fine. Infact, heres a challenge, if ur reading this rhys, ill take that rock off you and give it a home!
 
#43 ·
He thinks the sun shines out o his ass to be honest with you

with the episode with the rock python when he said there were only two options I said to my brother "actually he has three... he could put it on RFUK classifieds"

twat he is
so very true :lol2:

an aggresive snake should never be put down. there are plenty of people on here knowledgeable enough to look after an afrock. im NOT saying its wrong but personally i dont like WC reps. if the person who brought it researched beforehand then it wouldnt have got this far!!!
 
#42 ·
@ azuk- how many episodes ae left? its not very often somthing like this is on tv, i mean we have "spring watch" and "autum watch" but nothing that concentrates on mostly reptiles....
 
#44 ·
Too be honest only thing i can say is ridiculous. Afrocks where one of thefirst species i ever worked with at a very young age so i have a passion for the species and to here about this poor snake being put to sleep Annoyed the hell
out of me. There are some great keepers in the hobbie who can provide well for these animals but mostly i have heard of some horrible stories of afrocks and other giants needing homes and being destroyed :( i just can't get over that at 2ft it is so young and it's not asif they can't get used to human interaction they may take different techniques and approaches as they generally tend to be much more nervous but they are no different to an aggressive and nervous retic or burmese imo it's the same dangers they jsut need an experienced keeper who can deal with aggressive snakes but insted of that they just see putting a healthy animal down much more beneficial wtf. i have rescued giants in the past and if it wasn't for the room issue and financial i would carry on doing so.
 
#50 ·
It is TV. And clearly to him it is simply entertainment.

People here will pick up on every mistake he makes, every time he says something that isn't accurate or even true. :roll: But people who aren't into reptiles won't know any different and will believe the hype he creates. And there's just no need for it. All he's doing is provoking fear in people by making the ordeal he does.

I think the theme of the show is great, don't get me wrong. There isn't anything like it on TV based in this country. But it could be done so much better.

As my Dad always used to say... a bit knowledge can be dangerous. :banghead:
 
#52 ·
well, thinking about it now and reading some of the coments i dont mind a bit of up staging for the camera's aslong as they ae showing the animals, i guess to get ratings they have to do somthing....

and if you think about it, even though it is getting a bad responce from some people, it is a responce non the less, which means people are watching it....and threads like this are bumping the ratings even more...which can only be a good thing.

i think the saying goes "any press is good press"
 
#53 ·
at the end of the day it's entertainment.
There will always be those who have a different opinion, and certainly on an open forum there will be those who disagree because they believe they know better.
As long as TV shows such as this high light the plight of rescued exotics then I am all for them. If they need to use Shock tactics to get there message across so be it.
 
#54 ·
This may be an unsuitable idea for a variety of reasons, but would there be any interest amongst the RFUK community in filming a small series of short films? These could be of any nature - whether they be specific to a type of snake each time, such as colubrids one time, or giant snakes another or even DWA species possibly, all based on the hobby within the UK.

For me personally, as someone who is not at the epicentre of the hobby in the sense of being professionally involved, it would be of huge interest to have a bit more insight into things going on in the hobby in the UK and would be a good chance to show the hobby in a more positive light within this country.

I wouldn't expect this to go on TV, but it would be perfectly fine for it to be available to view online, either via this site or another, more mass media option, such a youtube.

I know a lot of people have aired concerns as to revealing what they have in their collection, for fear of theft and so on, but there would surely be ways of filming so as not to reveal the location - or filming the animals at another location even, such a shop. There must be several keepers and shops and other professionals who would appreicate the exposure...

Would be interested to know people's thoughts on that.....??
 
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