With concerns being raised about reptiles and children, would you feel that the children were safe if you have reptiles?

It is Amphibians that run the risk of giving salmonilla to kids. Turtles especailly are known for this. As far as reptiles, some do bite.

Although the bites may not be dangerous they can scare a kid or the kid might freak out and shake their hand, flinging the animal. On the whole there are more concerns for the pet than the child. Reptiles have VERY specific needs, especially in terms of lighting, heating, feeding, and humidity.

If children are in charge, the pet might suffer from a childs lack of experience and dedication (as well as they get distracted or bored or lazy).

No way, I do not like these, never would have them in my house. My daughter lives with a few reptiles and even though I dislike them big time I know my grand kids (5 yrs, 2 yrs and the third is a few months old) are safe. The cages the reptiles live in have a nice big lock on them, so I feel confident of their safety.

Hmmm, I'm not familiar with the concerns about reptiles really. So, I had to do some investigation. This is a pretty quick run down of problems exoticpets.about.com/cs/reptiles/a/repts... but basically it boils down to samonella infections.

How interesting. I really didn't know this. Now, would I have reptiles?

I would say no but not because of the warnings but because I'm really not into reptiles. I'm happy to visit them in the zoo but I'm not all about them living in my house. In fact, when I moved into this house six months ago, I found a toad living in the basement.

I have no idea how it got there but my basement had a very bad water problem and so it may have come in as a tadpole or maybe it was the pet of the previous owners. Regardless, I thought the frog may not make it but when I moved in, I didn't have time to hunt down the frog. Weeks later, I saw the frog again.

Obviously, my basement was quite a good home for this frog. There were nice bugs, no predators, and water. Probably perfect.

After I got the wall fixed and there was alot less water in my basement, I finally caught the frog and release her by the very large pond in the state park a few miles away. That is about the closest to a reptile pet as I want. The problem with the salmonella is really of secondary concern I think if some of the guidelines are followed.In fact, many years ago there were warnings about going to petting zoos because of e.coli.

Kids were getting sick after visiting petting zoos. So again, some precautions against bacterial infections should reduce any problems. Even dogs can track in e.

Coli from the yard and such. Overall, I'm just not a reptile person, and those who are just need to follow precautions.

I had seen shows regarding infants and reptiles in the same homes. To my understanding it also depends a lot on the type of reptile and the age of the child. Admittedly because I don't really have interest in reptiles I don't know much about it.

However with any pet and kid I feel there are risks and advantages all of which should be explored for the situation. In the case of a reptile, I'd do my research as long as factually and scientifically it posed no harm to my child sure I'd go for it. I stress factually and scientifically as I don't feed into a lot of the media hype.

If it did pose a risk I'd wait until it no longer did.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.