I love snakes and reptiles. I always have. I’ve had them for years, off and on, but I’ve long since recognized that there are some things that I just don’t care for when it comes to our cold-blooded pets. Mostly though, especially since recently, I started looking in on some reptile subreddits, there is one thing that I really, really actively dislike.

See you below the fold to see what it is.Before I get to that though, I want to say that this kind of thing isn’t just limited to snakes and reptiles and it isn’t just on Reddit and I am certainly not the only one that thinks this way because I’ve seen others making the same point, but it is one thing that really bothers me.

It’s the fact that a lot of owners of snakes and reptiles, they treat their animals like collectibles, not like living creatures. They have a collection. They don’t have pets. They trade them like Pokemon cards. They put them on display. I’m sure they take care of them, but the whole thing feels so sterile, like it’s just a thing on the shelf and if that thing dies, it wasn’t a pet, it was an investment that got lost.

That kind of attitude really sucks.

This came up a few days ago on the r/reptiles subreddit, where someone else posted that they have the same kind of problem and, surprisingly, tons of people agreed. I get really sick and tired of people posting “I have a spare XX tank, what can I fill it with?” How about you ask yourself if you have the capacity to properly care for another animal?

It’s one that I’ve run into a lot, unfortunately. As many may know, I bred pet rats for many years, as well as mice, hamsters, rabbits and some reptiles in the distant past. Even when they were breeding stock, every single animal I have ever had was treated like a pet, they were played with and docile and their health, happiness and welfare came far before any breeding efforts. They got retired relatively early and then, they had a life of luxury until they died of natural causes. These aren’t products, they are animals. I don’t understand people who don’t treat them as such.

Yet there are a lot who simply don’t. It’s just  a bunch of animals stored in a tub, there to make money and that’s just dumb. I’ve seen this go on with dogs, cats and rabbits especially in the past, especially on the show circuit, where if the animal didn’t win a prize, they’ve been beaten, abused or even killed. This is just reprehensible, yet it is unfortunately all too common.

As I said before, this isn’t something limited to reptiles, or even rats, way back in the day, I used to see the same thing done with birds, people, almost entirely women, who simply wanted something to mother so they took in as many birds as they could, often seeking out the ones with physical problems, just so they could present themselves as heroes to the world at large.

Then they’d say they have no money to care for any of their birds because mostly, they don’t have jobs. They would run a constant string of GoFundMe campaigns, all the while taking in more animals that they know they can’t care for. It’s just ridiculous.

Seriously, can we stop doing that? Can we collectively realize that once you bring a live creature into your home, it’s not a show piece, it’s not a fashion accessory, it’s not there to stroke your ego or for you to show off, it’s a part of the family and it deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. If you can’t manage that, if this is just something that you’re sticking on a shelf to look at and feel good about yourself, don’t do it at all. You can’t handle the responsibility. You have problems and far too many people out there clearly do.

Personally, I’m getting sick and tired of the problem people. I’d much rather have animals than I would idiots who own them. At least the animals are blameless. The people are not. Enough with the collections. Adopt what you can handle and what you can reasonably care for. If you have an empty tank, maybe it should stay that way. Living creatures are not room decor. If that’s the only way you can see them, then maybe you have no business having any because you are an idiot.

I am ever so sick of idiots.