Hiss!!! Many people are afraid of this sound. This is the sound a snake makes when frightened or provoked. What is a snake? A snake is a cold-blooded creature. Many people are afraid of this creature because of its looks. It gives an unwavering, penetrating stare that freezes you to the spot, it has a slimy looking, limbless body, and the scariest part probably is its fangs. These creatures may look like monsters, but they’re not. Snakes don’t really want to do humans any harm. In most snakebite accidents, it was the human that provoked the snake into biting. When people hear that hissing sound, they know it’s a snake and have an urge to kill it. There are several reasons for this instinct.

The first is that a snake can do you harm. The second is that it looks disgusting, urging some people to kill it. The third is just the instinct to survive. Snakes are more afraid of you than you are of them, if you leave snakes alone than they will leave you alone. So, back to the question: friend or foe? I say friend, because snakes are innocent creatures. They don’t want to kill humans any more than small kittens do. If you step on a snake it is the snake’s instinct to survive that drives it to bite. If a snake is on your lawn it isn’t trying to kill you. Your lawn probably used to be a snake’s home; just wait for it to go away. Animals aren’t as intelligent as humans. Don’t go close to a snake and assume it won’t bite because it knows your not prey. If you look like prey it will hurt you.

Many people are afraid of the snake because of its looks. It gives an unwavering, penetrating stare that freezes you to the spot, it has a slimy looking, limbless body, and the scariest part probably is its fangs. These creatures may look like monsters, but they’re not. Just because something looks different doesn’t mean there’re monsters.

Snakes don’t really want to do humans any harm. In most snakebite accidents, it was the human that provoked the snake into biting. There is proof that the snake does not want to bite humans. A rattlesnake sounds out a warning by shaking its rattle. This is proof that at snake does not want to bite. A rattlesnake bites if you ignored its warning and come too close. Snakes bite humans to defend themselves. Snakes are shy and try to avoid trouble by hiding or moving away from danger. If the predator becomes too interested; they are forced to attack. If you think snakes kill many humans each year you would be mistaken. Snakes kill only about 10 humans each year in the U.S. More people die of bee sting each year than snakebite.

Snakes are more afraid of you than you are of them, if you leave snakes alone than they will leave you alone. So, back to the question: friend or foe? I say friend, because snakes can be helpful in many ways. Snake venom is bad, right? I bet nobody guessed that snake venom can be extremely helpful. It can be used as a medicine for more venomous snake bites. In the 12th century, snake venom was used by doctors to treat leprosy. Nowadays, snake venom is used in the development of many medicines. The best known medicine made by snake venom is anti venom.

In 1894, Mr. Albert Calmette found a way to hyper-immunize animals against snake venom, by injecting the animals with a small dose, then increasing the dose daily. I bet you also didn’t know that snake venom can successfully treat victims of stroke. Researchers claim the experimental drug called Ancrod, lowers levels of a blood-clotting substance is the blood and may be able to reverse the effects of a stroke. In a study of 500 stroke patients, it helped 42% recover their physical and mental abilities within three hours.

Snakes also can help the ecosystem/environment. They eat many pesky rodents each year. Who knows how many diseases they have saved humans from getting? They also clean the environment. They eat dead things if they can find them. Mice and dead things can carry many dangerous, life threatening diseases.

Now you see snakes are not all bad. They can help in many ways and can even save lives! It is unfair to villainize snakes for what they look like or the venom they can’t help but carry. They are not evil and if they were mad hunters the kill count would be much higher than 10 every year in the U.S! They aren’t there to hurt us. They are friends.