What makes an animal a pest, vs. a potential pet? Atlas Obscura’s Andrew Coletti spoke with science journalist Bethany Brookshire, who has written a book about the subject, to find out. “India has way more venomous snakes than the U.S. does, and yet people there are not as utterly terrified, screaming ‘Go chop its head off with a hoe!’ about snakes [like Americans do],” says Brookshire. “And that’s because they have different ideas about what snakes are, and what snakes do, and where snakes belong.”

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