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The hidden factory farms behind America’s pet snake boom

You might have particular feelings about snakes, but for millions of Americans they’re a member of the household. And their popularity as pets has only been growing: From 2018 to 2024, the number of households that own a pet snake rose from about 810,000 to 1.3 million. And the share of snake-owning households with more than three snakes doubled over that time period. Key takeaways About 1.3 million households in the US have at least one pet snake — a number that’s rapidly grown since the 2010s. To feed all of these pet snakes, companies are breeding tens of millions of mic...