Snakebit by Surf Store’s Live Display
Re: “Like, Too Cool--Snakes Set Up Shop With Surfer Dudes” (June 21): Living has taught me that men’s greed is inversely proportional to their humaneness.
An example of that tenet was given by Bill Manson in his article about Rod Messinger, manager of a Coronado Surf & Sport shop. It seems Messinger’s concept of an attractive window display was a desert diorama, complete with constrictor snakes and captive live mice.
The passers-by and children were regaled by preying pythons, suffocating and ingesting mice. . . . A live duck was also brought in as food for a Burmese python, while preteens played ball in front of the shop.
It is sad enough that such events occur in nature, but to re-create them in a window display for the jollies they bring to amateurs of gore and curious children is repugnant.
MICHELE MOONEY
Los Angeles
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