Snakes and turtles and lizards, oh my!
Sciensational Sssnakes!! slithered into guests’ hands and hearts at the Woodbine Centre’s annual Shriek, Ride & Treat event on October 31.
“Our goal is to educate people about reptiles, and our focus is definitely on snakes because there’s a lot of misunderstanding and bad information about them out there,” said owner of Sciensational Sssnakes!! Jenny Pearce.
Snakes are often thought to be slimey and aggressive. However, Pearce said, “cleaner and dryer than we are, so clean they’re hypoallergenic, there is nothing less slimey then a snake.” [sic]
“I would never use the word aggressive with a snake unless I’m talking about it acquiring its prey, but they’re incredibly picky eaters, so its not like we have to worry about getting eaten by them,” Pearce said.
Founded over 20 years ago by Pearce and her partner Jeff Hathaway, Sciensational Sssnakes!! offers both public and private programs varying from birthday parties to big events like the Shriek, Ride & Treat. These programs always run in two parts.
There is an educational portion, where attendees learn about the animals. Then, there’s a hands-on portion where every single person who attends the program gets an opportunity to touch or hold a snake.
The collection of about 100 snakes, turtles, tarantulas and lizards is a combination of both rescues and donations from zoos that are looking to rehome their extras.
“One of my favourite things about snakes is that they are really dumb, it’s a fantastic thing,” Pearce said. “A whole range of emotions for a snake is scared or not scared, and then they’ve run out of brain. They’re not happy, they’re not sad and they’re never in a bad mood.”
Between all of the different snakes, Pearce said her favourite is the Corn snake. “If you were going to design a pet animal, Corn snake, that’s it, they’re the perfect size, easy to feed, easy to care for.” Pearce highly recommended them as pets, they come in over 200 colours and designs. Pearce said if you wanted to get a snake to match the drapes in your bedroom, you could.
Their most recent public event at Woodbine Centre, “Sciensational Sssnakes!! brought a snake named Molly, which is a pretty big snake and then they also brought a white snake which was pretty unique, and that snake was named Davis,” said Christina Carrieri, Manager of Fantasy Fair at Woodbine Centre.
Molly is a Burmese python about three metres long she, “is one of the examples of a bad pet snake,” Pearce said, because she is so big and hard to care for. Davis is an amelanistic snake; he lacks melanin in his skin and therefore he is white.
About the Author
Juliana Bannon is a third year University of Guelph-Humber student who one day hopes to edit fiction novels. When she isn't at school, Juliana spends her days going on adventures with her Siberian Husky named Angel.
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