Yes, I'm allowed to own pets.

[AkaiKitsune]

Was off work, not in uniform but this Karen walks up and says that what I'm doing is illegal. Confusing because I'm sprawled on the grass in a public park enjoying one of the last sunny and not freezing days left before it's too cold. Turns out she recognized me from one of my food jobs and declared it was, get this, illegal for people who handle food to own pets. Which, if it were true, would mean nobody was allowed to own a pet because humans require food to survive. Pointing this bot of logic out to Karen did not score me points.

Then she decided to try to grab my snakie. Thing about colubrids of any variety is they are very motion based, it's one of the reasons that corns and kingsnakes are so popular in the pet trade is they don't just sit there all day. Having a stranger grope you is not something anyone enjoys. Needless to say I own a False Water Cobra, who well visually looks similar enough to a actual cobra in that they have similar colouring if you aren't dealing with a weird pet trade morph, and they do 'hood up' similar in appearance to a true cobra although by a slightly different method. The whole point is to trick predators into thinking they are dangerous because no nobody wants to fuck with a cobra. They're a mimic. You'd think having an 8.5ft snake sprawled on me while half asleep would be enough of a hint that she wasn't dangerous. And I can understand the confusion but a simple explanation is generally enough for people to calm the fuck down.

Not Karen. She needed to call the cops "because all snakes are dangerous" (ironically, cobras are some of the easiest of the hots to handle because of that motion oriented drive. Vipers on the other hand are assholes and meanies, especially the tree ones)

Cops of course come and I provide my level 1 permit (which because BC is stupid you need to own a falsie). We drive to my vet to confirm that yes this is an entirely harmless snake since cops are herpologists and wouldn't know one snake from another. And I leave while Karen continues to have a meltdown demanding I should be arrested. I pity the poor cop but admire their patience.

I wish we arrested Karen's who deliberately waste cops time like they do in some places. A mistake is one thing but in a lot of places in the world if the allegations are proven false and you continue to act like a tantruming toddler then you get arrested for wasting police time/taxpayer money/tying up resources. Strangely enough those places don't have as many Karens calling up the cops to prop up their ego and just to harass others for not getting their way.

Now I could understand if I was going to work with an animal when I work in food. But not off duty.

[Arcus]

You know she's going to go to your work and tell them you have animals, and make up stories about you having them at work, right?

Karens gotta Karen even when the law tells them they are wrong.

[AkaiKitsune]

You know she's going to go to your work and tell them you have animals, and make up stories about you having them at work, right?

Karens gotta Karen even when the law tells them they are wrong.

My manager comes in at the end of my shifts to do morning safe counts and the money drop to the bank. She wouldn't miss an 8.5ft snake in her store. And my chameleon sleeps at night, but they need darkness or they can't sleep properly and florescent lights are in no way dark. Besides, she thinks my cham is cute and doesn't care if I bring him in as a customer so long as I'm not in uniform when I do. So she can certainly try to make up stories. Funny thing about having a shoebox for a storage room/office is there's no space to hide anything.

[Kristev]

I understand. I'm playing a druid who worships a snake goddess in a D&D game because the goddess teaches her devotees to turn deadly venoms into healing medicines - and to always be ready to use those venoms should anyone prove hostile. To Cinnamon, the druid I'm playing, snakes and reptiles prove to make far better company than human and elves do. And he can have much more sensible conversations with them. Speaking to animals - and getting responses, is one of the reasons druids are my favorite class to play.

[EricKei]

Are "Filing a false police report" laws a thing where you are? Could come in handy in the future.

[csquared]

Then she decided to try to grab my snakie.

That, you could possibly have press charges on.

[AkaiKitsune]

That, you could possibly have press charges on.

Nope not here. Animals don't have any protection against unwanted groping (not do their owners of the animal then retaliates) unless it's a service animal. If she had tried to grab ME that would be a different story. Also,the stupid laws here state that it's ALWAYS the owner's fault if an altercation between their animal and someone else comes up unless you can PROVE, with evidence (and by evidence they mean video) that the animal was provoked. Incredibly stupid I know. The only exception to that NOW is horses and riders. And it took a kid dying and public backlash when all they could charge the asshole with was trespassing. Despite the fact that he admitted on camera that his dog was aggressive towards other animals, despite not having it on a leash, despite being on a bridleway where there was no foot (exception being when leading a horse) and certainly no animal traffic aside from horses allowed, despite there being clear signage. I can't imagine parents hearing their kid was dead because of someone else's entitlement and negligence and then to add insult to it that they got tapped with a trespassing charge instead of the manslaughter charge it should have been? A minor fine of less then $500 was all their kid's life was worth because of a badly written archaic law that should have been scrapped decades ago?

Are "Filing a false police report" laws a thing where you are? Could come in handy in the future.

Not unless the crime reported has either an automatic default protocol (ie if she said I was threatening people with my snake they would have to treat it as if I had actually been making threats against others and that would mean until it's cleared up the default is to lock me up so I'm not a threat to anyone/myself) or if I committed a actual offense after the cops showed up. The exception is if it's a repeated incident between the same parties in which case then it does fall under nuisance bylaws because in theory the problem has already been clarified and any time after that is considered deliberately being a pain in the ass rather then a potential misunderstanding. Also, our cops in my area are lazy af and entirely corrupt. This dept isn't even allowed on site for SARs anymore because of how often they've doctored reports and outright lies about what has happened.

[EricKei]

Hmm..In that case, Attempted Theft might be the charge, as I presume one's pet would be considered "personal property." I hope you never have to find out for certain.

[Pixelated]

This reminded me of a story-- only slightly similar, in terms of people fearing unusual pets -- that I saw on another site. OP was working in a pet shop that sold, among other things, rats. PET rats. So we're talking clean and carefully-bred rats.

You can see where this is going.

Idiot comes in, stares at the rats, asks repeatedly if they are clean and disease-free, OP attempts to explain that yes, they are; they are NOT sewer rats or whatever, and in fact SHE has pet rats at home. Idiot then starts screaming that she is harbouring diseased rats and they are gonna kill everybody and everybody else needs to get out NOW NOW NOW. A coworker comes over to help out and finally, fed up, says "You better leave now, because all these rats are breathing the same air as you are, so ..."

Idiot's eyes about bug out of his head and he bolts out the door, still screaming.

The OP wrote that the one bright spot was that a couple of customers, after listening to all this, were curious enough to ask about pet rats ... and bought a couple.

I am not afraid of snakes but have never had a pet one (no real interest, to be honest. I prefer cats because who can NOT like an animal that sneers at you all the time, amiright??)

Never had a pet rat either but I do know the difference between a pet rat and wild ones ... one of the latter was the one I nearly ran over tonight as I was driving home. I really do NOT like wild rats but even so ... I hit the brakes, screaming "MOVE IT, YOU STUPID RODENT!!"

And if people who own pets can't handle food ... there goes my job as a grocery cashier. I guarantee I carry more of my cat to my job than you do of your snakie.

[Dave0523]

Wonder what Karen would think of me. Amongst my family, we have 7 cats, 2 dogs, and a bearded dragon. And I'm a baker. I don't just handle the food, I make it.

[csquared]

Nope not here. Animals don't have any protection against unwanted groping

You don't have animal cruelty laws?

Hmm..In that case, Attempted Theft might be the charge, as I presume one's pet would be considered "personal property."

You could also look at damage done to personal property.

Either way, glad snakie is OK.

[AkaiKitsune]

You don't have animal cruelty laws?


You could also look at damage done to personal property.

Either way, glad snakie is OK.

We sorta do. In that if you are caught on camera or in person by animal control deliberately harming your animal you might get a fine. Here, so long as the abuse/neglect is claimed as an I didn't know situation they can't take the animal away unless it's in immediate danger (as in will die within the hour not clearly these ppl aren't going to change). No matter how neglected or starved. It's absolutely stupid and one of the few things the states do better then us. There, if an animal is being abused/neglected they attempt to call the owner and simply seize the animal with a you can try to fight this in court notice. I literally kidnapped someone's mare and foal once after they had let multiple horses die of starvation/injury and kept refusing to feed them properly or provide vet care....and they didn't notice what was supposed to be a 1200lb missing from their backyard.

Wonder what Karen would think of me. Amongst my family, we have 7 cats, 2 dogs, and a bearded dragon. And I'm a baker. I don't just handle the food, I make it.

I currently have 12 panther chameleons,1 ancient Meller's chameleon (13yrs old), two true cobras and a white-lipped tree viper (blue morph) which is why I'm not allowed people under 19 in my house as per permits (I'm working on an apprenticeship with venomous reptiles), I have two suicidal basilisks, a frilled lizard, my falsies, 4 dogs, I had three cats but two of them died of old age related kidney failure and the other was stolen by the neighbors (hence why I know our cops are lazy corrupt bastards. What should have been solved in twenty minutes (I'm sorry but since the second story they claimed as truth was that the cat was male, and we were saying it was female, a simple vet check would have solved that once and for all. Something we offered to pay for but the cops deemed as unnecessary because they were covering for their buddy who had fucked it up the first time) is now ongoing two years. We aren't even sure if she's still alive anymore), a hawk(Icarus. Who has a molting problem so he can never be rerelease) and a falcon(Tauri, who thinks she's an eagle and deliberately goes after eagles then gets fucked up so she'll not be released again) but neither bird lives with me and they board at the raptor centre as I don't have the necessary facilities, a horse who again boards elsewhere.

Also, if you like cats and dogs then a panther chameleon is basically the best of both worlds with none of the downsides. They'll come up to greet you can learn some basic tricks if you're persistent but aren't demanding tons of your time or attention either. Cheap to maintain (though expensive to setup. My full out enclosures usually are around $1200-1500each but much of that is one time costs. Between the actual enclosure itself, climbing vines, sticks, plants (a major expense also probably because I have a black thumb) soil, lights...etc and that's hand misting not using a setup) and they can be as hands on or as look don't touch as you care to work with.

I am not afraid of snakes but have never had a pet one (no real interest, to be honest. I prefer cats because who can NOT like an animal that sneers at you all the time, amiright??)

If you really want a fun pet that has a look of slightly condescending disapproval check out panther chameleons. It's like all the snotty I am awesome attitude of a cat and the grabby grabby I want socialization of a dog but without any of the demands of either. No suddenly turning into razor blades if you overstep the disapproval boundary by daring to pet to much, none of the overabundance of energy that a dog has. They can also learn tricks.

And if people who own pets can't handle food ... there goes my job as a grocery cashier. I guarantee I carry more of my cat to my job than you do of your snakie.

If people who handle food can't own pets then I guess pets are illegal since we all need to eat. The good old cat hair. I swear I'm still finding cat hair on my clothes despite not having a cat in house for almost two years now. I've determined fur has it's own gravitational pull and that's why it always seems to be found on clothes no matter how many times with the lint brush or through the wash. Either that or I'm the one slowly sprouting fur and turning into a cat.

[earl colby pottinger]

What pray tell is a "suicidal basilisk"? I have an imagination of an animal that insists of going into dangerous places (like the mouse I found fried inside a computer power supply) just because it looks interesting.

[Ironclad Alibi]

What pray tell is a "suicidal basilisk"? I have an imagination of an animal that insists of going into dangerous places (like the mouse I found fried inside a computer power supply) just because it looks interesting.

A suicidal basilisk is one that likes to look at itself in mirrors in order to get stoned.

[AkaiKitsune]

What pray tell is a "suicidal basilisk"? I have an imagination of an animal that insists of going into dangerous places (like the mouse I found fried inside a computer power supply) just because it looks interesting.

Every single time I walk into their enclosure the two insist on launching themselves off one of the climbing branches onto me, leaving me to either catch them or risk injury. They also treat the climbing branches like a diving board and will jump off them into the water... Considering they are routinely doing this from anywhere from 5ft-10ft above ground, yes that means above my head sometimes. Nothing like having a flailing lizard throw itself on your shoulder (or head) to scare the **** out of you at 8am to wake you up after a shift. And considering a basilisk can get large as adults...