A good rule of thumb is to never intentionally let a snake bite your 1-year-old and post a video of it on social media. Even if the snake is a tiny rat snake that isn’t poisonous and won’t break the skin, it’s an incredibly terrible idea.
A Florida mom discovered the rat snake outside her house and took the opportunity to introduce the snake to her daughter. She found out the hard way that her “teachable moment” wasn’t seen as such by many.
“It had bitten me and my son and didn’t leave a mark, several times,” she says in the video. “So, I thought it was a good opportunity to introduce her without actually getting hurt.”
Letting a snake bite your baby intentionally is a completely stupid move. Putting that on Facebook takes the initial stupid decision and makes it even worse. It’s no surprise her doing just that has caused a wave of controversy about her decision.
Whether the snake was non-poisonous and tiny doesn’t really matter. There’s always the possibility for injury or even an infection that could occur. If this had been an effective learning experience that taught her to accept snakes, it sounds like this could potentially cause the baby to view other snakes as harmless, even when they aren’t.
Actually teaching your kids in a safe manner is one thing, but at this child’s age, it’s doubtful it’ll be a lesson she manages to remember later on in life.
The local sheriff’s department is currently investigating the incident, but no charges have been filed.
Is this a way of introducing a child to wildlife that you can get behind or was it a completely just a terrible idea?
