Vrex360 said:
I don't think many animals are unfairly typecast, though I think a lot of people have been lead to believe they are.
In general an animal tends to be viewed as "bad" when it starts killing people or their domesticated livestock directly or indirectly.
No, snakes are not "out to bite people" intentionally, but walk through the grass where one blends in and it might bite you by reflex. Overall neither you or the snake did anything wrong, but if it's poisonous your going to die or be messed up just the same.
Reptiles are pretty simple creatures overall, hence referances to the "lizard brain" when talking about basic reactions even with people. This means there aren't many possible behaviors for them unlike some other creatures, it's pretty much fight or flight, and if your big like a person it pretty much figures it's not getting away from something your size, and goes into "last ditch attack mode". Assuming the creature is even wired to run away, I mean some snakes and stuff are simply hyper-aggressive as a survival mechanism apparently.
Studying spiders, can show all kinds of positive benefits to them, keeping down worse insects, and yes they leave people alone in general. But still if you don't see that spider skittering around, or notice it's web, or walk under the wrong tree in the wrong place, it's a trip to venom city... again the spider wasn't out to attack people, it just did what it does... and yeah your out of context with it's ecosystem, but it still bloody reacts.
As a result, I generally don't want spiders, snakes, etc.. around myself, my kids, or my pets. Accidents happen. If I spot a spider or snake or whatever, I'm going to get rid of it just to prevent an accident. Whether it gets killed/squished, or simply tossed somewhere else, all depends on the situation, and whether I recognize what the heck it is. Not big on taking risks.
Also some animals are unfairly lionized. For example I occasionally get a bit of "lulz" out of the plight of the wolf and stuff like that. Oh sure, nowadays wolves are FAIRLY rare in most places, and tend to avoid people. However one thing people tend to forget is that the more of the bloody things there are, the bigger the packs get, and the less fear of people they have. People and wolves used to compete for living space and such all through the world which is how they got a reputation for being bad. Really big packs used to wipe out towns and stuff. Those "kill 10 wolves" quests in fantasy games? Well people really did hunt them down like that for some good reasons.
Now granted, the world HAS changed, unlike say the middle ages when the "Werewolf" stories got started, and hamlets and isolated farms might be wiped out if a pack gets too big, we're not dealing with people having to go up against them with knives, spears, and bows, or even muzzle loaders. A Modern gun is pretty much one wolf per trigger pull, and even if your not armed, calling people that are is a phone call away (your not isolated like the old days). Still while I don't want them ALL dead, I'm not fond of the idea of rebuilding the packs of wolves in some places as "protected species". Even now we occasionally have hikers and stuff mauled, and truthfully as I mentioned above, how aggressive the things are, and how they related to people depends a lot about how many are in the area. Sure a small pack might fear people, but a pack of dozens or even hundreds that is vigorously claiming a huge area as it's territory? That can become something else entirely according to a lot of things I've read.
Oh and while I'm ranting I would like to say one final thing:
Florida, you are officially insane.
I've read a lot about Alligators being "protected" species and such, and all kinds of stories about people getting in trouble for messing with or killing them. The thing is though according to a lot of stuff I've read 'Gators *ARE* That bad. See unlike many animals that will only kill stuff when they need food or whatever, Alligators will pretty much kill whatever they can, and then go stash their meat under a log or whatever for it to decay (which is how they prefer it). This is also one of the reasons why "feeding the bodies to the gators" is a commonly used method of disposing of bodies in fiction and stuff. Gators hide their food and stuff.
So basically, given that if one of these things wanders by, and gets surprise, it would gladly kill me, drag my body off, and hide it someplace for an extra snack whenever it gets hungry.... why am I supposed to be protecting them, and feeling guilty about gator skin clothing and handbags again?
I've read enough about animals, where I understand the whole concept of "generally harmless" and the general context in which spiders and snakes are defended as "good" animals. However in certain cases like Alligators, the term "bloody dangerous" comes to mind. Heck, I think that the Alligator/Crocodiles, Rats, Hyenas, and Dingos should sometime sit down and discuss which of them is the most evil of the popularly disliked animals. Chances are the Hyena would probably win but well...
