I was recently summoned because there was a snake in a public area and there was concern that it may be a copperhead and I am known to have an interest in snakes. By the time I got there, a man was in the process of decapitating a harmless milk snake while invoking the need to protect people walking by.
This made me frustrated because the snake could have easily been
removed alive and taken to a nearby field or patch of woods.
The following day, in the midst of my still smoldering righteous
indignation, I remembered an incident from maybe 10 or 12 years ago. We had
moved into the mountains where we see snakes fairly often, including
copperheads and rattlesnakes. One day, one of our kids reported seeing some
baby snakes and, sure enough, there were multiple little snakes poking their
heads out of a large crack in the blocks surrounding a planting bed right next
to the house.
Baby snakes often look different than their adult counterparts
and I did not know what kind of snakes they were and was concerned because they
were right beside the house. I was worried that they may be baby rattlesnakes.
So I killed the ones I could get to and tried to flush the others out with a
water hose. Only later did I realize that they were baby rat snakes, totally
harmless and maybe even helpful in keeping the poisonous snakes away.
Now I know what baby rat snakes look like and would never
kill them. If that happened today, I would take some pictures and leave them be.
But the younger, less-experienced version of me didn’t know what I know now.
At that time, I was basically the same as the guy killing
the milk snake a few days ago. Perhaps we are most frustrated by the actions of
others that reflect poorly on our past selves? As humans, we often react
violently to things we fear because we do not understand. Fear and ignorance
are a dangerous combination.
The antidote is to seek to learn more about the things we do
not understand. After I had killed the baby snakes, I posted some pictures to
ask others what kind they were and quickly got responses from a couple of people
who knew. I confirmed this by checking in my field guides as well. In
retrospect, it would have been good to do this before killing them.
How much of what we do to “protect” ourselves and others are
simply illogical actions borne out of fear and ignorance? And what are the
ramifications of those actions?
