Roommate Drama Over Giant 6-Foot Snake Has Reddit Firmly Planted on Team Snake

Let's just jump right into the snake pit, shall we? In this post on Reddit's "Am I the A-hole?" a 24-year-old woman explains that she has two roommates, the "snake one" and the "normal one." She is not close with them, but that was never a problem before this... isssssssssssue.

You see, the "snake roommate" has a snake as a pet. A big one. She never mentioned it, so OP had no idea the snake was in the apartment until she walked into her roommate's bedroom and saw it. And she is not OK with this snake.

It's worth it to say that both the "snake" roommate and the "normal" roommate lived there for a year before OP took over  their old roommate's lease. (I assume the old roommate was another human.) 

OP writes that the snake is at least six feet long. "I almost had a heart attack when I saw it and she had it draped over her shoulders like a f--king scarf," she writes. Needless to say, OP freaked out about the snake. Snake roommate insisted the landlord had given her permission to have a pet snake, and she's had him for years. Snake roommate didn't see the problem.

OP writes, "I told her I wasn't cool with it and asked why didn't she mention this HUGE SNAKE before I moved in??? She said, 'It never leaves my room and it's allowed here, I didn't think it was a big deal.' Doesn't she know people have PHOBIAS of these things?"

She told snake roommate that she wasn't comfortable with the snake in the apartment and that it had to go. Snake roommate refused. She even tried to get the other roommate to side with her, but she won't. 

"This is extremely unfair," OP writes. "What if it escapes? Plus I just found out that she keeps dead frozen rats in the freezer! WTF! She didn't mention it before I moved in. That's on her, not me!"

So, OK, maybe the roommate should have mentioned the snake and the frozen rats in the freezer, but OP moved in at the beginning of the year. And it's now March. 

Until now she literally had no idea the snake existed. What she could do — hear me out — is be a mature adult and go back to living her life, which has until now been completely unencumbered by the presence of a snake in her roommate's bedroom. 

And most commenters agreed. Several claimed that if she had a phobia of snakes, she should have mentioned it when she moved in. "If I was allergic to cats," one commenter wrote, "I would ask if anyone had them before moving in. I would not just pretend no one ever owns cats and then demand they get rid of their cat once I moved in." 

Yes, it's more common to have a cat than it is to have a giant snake. But the mature thing to do here would be to say to her roommate, "You really should disclose any pets to people who move in," and then forget about it and move on with her life.

In the comments, she cops to notifying the landlord of the snake in an effort to catch snake roommate in a lie, but the landlord knew about it and was OK with it. In my mind, this move firmly cements that OP is in the wrong here. 

She's an adult. She didn't even know she was living with a snake for two months. Nothing about her life will change now that she knows about it. "Demanding someone to give up a pet, any pet, just because it makes you 'uncomfortable' is reprehensible," a commenter said. 

If you have pets, you get it. This woman has had that snake for years. Pets, whether they're furry and cuddly or long and scaly, are family members. Imagine if it was a dog or a cat that this woman was trying to make her roommate get rid of. It's the same thing.

Also, remember that she took over an empty room in an already established apartment. One commenter wrote, "Nothing is funnier to me than someone moving into a place and demanding things change, especially when nothing is inherently wrong." Overall, this is really not a good look for OP.