Reply #52: Yes! You're right!

[demobabe]

I'm a herper myself. You might have seen my herps in movies or on Jay Leno.

I have a nice scar on my finger where I got opened up once by my big boy iguana who didn't like those neon yellow gloves I was wearing one day.

Dealing with wild animals is dangerous. Dealing with them in the fashion Steve Irwin did is especially dangerous. And he has a choice of professions - this is what he chose. I never said he shouldn't have been doing what he was doing, only that I disagreed with what he was teaching children in that it children might want to emulate his dangerous stunts.

Reptiles are dangerous. You want to make sure you point the dangerous end AWAY from you, not AIM IT AT YOUR FACE or try to incite them to lunge at you like I often saw Steve Irwin do.

You don't need any extra danger when dealing with herps. There's enough to begin with, even with non-poisonous reptiles.