There are criteria for evaluating a dog's safety - there are several temperament tests and dog behaviorists are working on better methods of evaluating whether or not a dog can be saved. Dogtown USA is an organization that is doing a lot of work on behavioral evaluation and rehabilitation - they took in some of the Michael Vick dogs, and while those dogs cannot be legally adopted (court decision), the trainers and behaviorists at Dogtown are rehabilitating the dogs and studying that process as a way of bettering current methods in use ( ... )

Agreed. Blanket-banning anything based on one instance of a negative outcome that may or may not have even been caused by the something you want to ban is ridiculous. Video games are the same way; just because there is one game that might, god forbid, allude to sex, all video games must be taken off the shelves and burned. Knee-jerk reactions are unfortunately all too common in America, though. Land of the Self-Righteous Nosy Jerkwads.

Aw, I love ball-pythons! I had a friend a while ago who had one and she was just the most affectionate snake ever. And re: your sister's cat, yes. I wouldn't get small reptiles if you have a predatory animal in the house. That's what happened to a lizard that my mom and I had: our cat got him. He doesn't really show any interest in the snakes though, remarkably; probably because he's getting old and just doesn't feel like actively stalking things anymore.