Pet owner takes pet snake to the park, only to be yelled at by neighbor with an unleashed dog: ‘Why do you even have a snake out here?’

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Oct 6, 2026 6:00 AM EDT

Are there any pets that don't deserve a nice outing in the park?

People keep pets of all kinds, from happy dogs to chill cats to silly parrots. We humans have tried to domesticate any animal that seemed friendly enough to us, even those that some might claim are quite dangerous. Pets truly come in all shapes and sizes. The way we treat these pets varies depending on the type of animal you welcome to your home, but generally speaking, we give them food, shelter, and even love, just so we can keep them as part of our family.

Some pets even get to go on daily walks outside with their owners, as we all know. Dogs are obviously the most common pets to do so, but in recent years we've seen people strolling along the street with cats, ferrets, birds, and many other kinds of friends one doesn't get to see out and about that much.

A snake, or more specifically, a python, is a pet we genuinely never thought we would see sunbathing at the park with its owner, but according to this story, that too is a possibility. This python owner takes really good care of their pet snake, so when the opportunity arises, they even take the snake out to the local park so that she can enjoy the grass and the weather. However, this time, when they were quietly enjoying one of the last warm days of the season, they were suddenly confronted by a dog owner and his unleashed dog. It seemed like this owner felt that his dog was more entitled to enjoy the park than the pet snake, and was very shocked to even encounter the python and her owner in a public, neighborhood space.

We're not sure how we would have felt if we met a python in the park, but an unleashed dog is not better, which makes us hesitate about whose side in this story we should take. If you feel the same, scroll down to read the full story and decide for yourselves.

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  • Exotic pet snake curled on person palm
    via Leung Cho Pan

    Exotic pet snake curled on person palm.

    Representative only.

  • AITAH for taking my snake to the park?

    I have a snake named Ellie, she's a very sweet ball python that I got as a rescue.
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  • She's probably about 3.5 ft, and somewhere between 3-5 years old. Of my three snakes, she's the most curious, adventurous, and 'friendly' (as much
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  • snakes can be friendly, that is.) I got her from a couple who had managed to get her original owner to give her up after he had been keeping her in a
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  • bare 20 gallon tank and feeding her live rats to the point of obesity. (Our guess was that he just liked to watch her k l and eat them...) Obviously,
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  • she lives much better now, but getting her to lose weight has been a process. One of the places she'll be the most active, however, is outside.
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  • I live on a quiet residential street that is kind of like a cul-de-sac, but with a open grassy area with a half dozen trees in the middle.
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  • It's really too small to be called a park, but it's the best description. Before anyone asks, yes, I have a backyard, but it is very tiny, gets very
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  • little sun, and is mostly paved with barely any grass (not my choice, I rent). Due to this, on days where it's warm enough, I'll occasionally grab a
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  • picnic blanket and set up out there with Ellie. She enjoys being outside, and I don't say that lightly.
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  • She is the only one of my snakes I take outside, because one is a flight risk (corn snakes...
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  • sigh) and my other ball python was scared the one time I tried it with him (hid in a hide I brought out with us the whole time).
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  • Ellie, on the other hand, does lots of periscoping, long tongue flicks, slithering around the blanket and smelling the grass, and is overall very
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  • active. (For those not familiar with snake body language, all signs of a relaxed but engaged snake.) When she wants to be done, she'll curl up under
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  • my legs or the corner of the blanket I keep folded up for her and I'll take her in.
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  • I've taken her out like this several times and have never had any issues before. The few neighbors that walk by generally don't notice her at all, and
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  • she gets some physical activity to help her lose some grams. Today is one of the last few 80°F days I figured we're going to get this year, so I
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  • wanted to take her out. While we were enjoying the weather, one of the neighbor's dogs came running over.
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  • Pet Dog in Park
    via pixelshot

    Pet Dog in Park.

    Stock photography for depiction only.

  • It was completely off leash, had to cross the road to get over to us, and was on us before I had time to process what was happening.
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  • Fortunately I always keep Ellie within arm's reach because of this exact fear, so my instinctual reaction was to throw my arms over her protectively
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  • and yell "NO!" at the dog. To be fair, I did sound very stern and probably angry, but I was more terrified than anything.
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  • The dog was pretty small, but any dog could easily injure a snake. I then scooped Ellie up with one hand to lift her up and keep her out of reach of
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  • the dog, and used my other hand to ward off the dog. It turned out the dog just really likes people and wanted to say hi, and probably didn't notice
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  • Ellie at all. The owner was calling his name from across the street, but the dog had zero recall and the owner had to come get him.
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  • The kicker is, he puts the dog back down in their yard and he runs over AGAIN.
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  • I just keep holding poor Ellie up in the air until the guy comes to get the dog again.
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  • I was ready to write it all off as an unfortunate accident and forgive and forget, until the guy (after grabbing the dog a second time) looks at me
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  • and says, sounding somewhat accusatory, "Where are you from? Do you live around here?" I say yes, and point at the house we're literally 50ft from.
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  • I've lived here for three years. Then he says, sounding annoyed, "Why do you even have a snake out here anyway?" I say the truth; it's the last warm
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  • day and I wanted to get her outside. I don't remember him saying anything to that, and he took the dog back across the street and inside their house.
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  • Ellie is understandably stressed out (heavy breathing, balled up in a way I've only seen her do one or two times before) but I looked her over (no
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  • injuries) and so I let us both calm down, and stayed outside: I don't want her to associate being outside with almost being stepped on by a
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  • After 10 minutes she relaxed and went back to her normal exploring. I think I'm more traumatized than she is, honestly.
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  • However, now I'm worried the guy might be right. I didn't think I was bothering anybody, but AITAH for bringing my snake to the green space for some
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  • outside time?
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pet ownership dogs neighbors neighborhood neighborhood-drama pet snake Bad Neighbor weird snake
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