Twenty years ago I covered a unusual news. We journalists were surprised at the same time that we felt sorry for a lady from Santa Coloma de Gramanet who came across a Python coming out of the cup toilet. The neighbors convened an extraordinary meeting, to find out who he belonged to. The fear these animals is something atavistic and very common.
Over the years, the news of finding a snake in the bathroom has already started to be less news, and it is that these animals have become pets. Sometimes illegally, since it is traded with protected species. In 2018, Seprona, the Nature Protection Service of the Civil Guard, found in Madrid and Castellón 600 reptiles from four continents. Lizards, turtles, snakes… Everything and everywhere. From Oceania to America. Some were around the €50,000 on the black market. Its recipients were mostly collectors. These animals, for their exoticism or its dangerousness, have become exclusive. As if they were Chinese porcelain vases. The investigation began at Schipol airport in the Netherlands, where a passenger who brought 200 reptiles to Spain in the suitcases.
That same year, in the popular neighborhood of Sant Ildefons de Cornella stopped a man who had a Komodo dragon. A lizard that can exceed two meters and can devour A person. And also rattlesnakes. A type of viper whose venom is difficult to possess antidotes because they do not belong to our fauna. There I already got with him theme, which I approached with devotion. And I have to say that since little girl I was interested in learning about reptiles. My favorites have been the snakes, that is, the snakes. Aesthetically they seem incredible beings to me. His head, his eyes, the scales, his sinuous way of moving fascinate. But I see them on TV. In documentaries. She would never have one. They give me dread.
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I do not criminalize them: they are of this world. They carry in the planet longer than us and they do not deserve to be removed from their environment to end up as decorative object. In the houses of people who do not know how to take care of them or manage them, since some are poisonous. Researching on the subject I met a herpetologist trained to take charge of the most dangerous. Behind high security measures, she welcomed and cared for animals that authorities they had found in the homes of owners and neighbors, since the snakes can travel through the pipes. He also took care of those that had been abandoned. In the middle of the situation, the sound of the rattlesnake in one of the terrariums it upset me. That animal had to be the Arizona desert. But when I saw an albino scaleless python, the result of several crosses, I shuddered and felt a pity immense.
With this specialist we talked about the danger of snakes, about poisonous ones, about how they alter our faunabut, above all, whether they are suitable as pets. They are not. Their reptilian brain does not allow them to recognize no one, not even its owner. And they will bite if they feel attacked. They give no more company than a painting. Unlike a dog or a cat, a snake can never love you.