LAST week The Herald revealed a unique etiquette dilemma that had emerged in a Scottish park - when is it acceptable to bring your pet snakes to the park?
Residents near Renfrewshire's Barshaw Park had found themselves embroiled in an unexpected community row as opinions divided on whether a local man should be allowed his collection of serpents in the greenspace.
A Facebook battle broke out on the Friends of Barshaw Park when it was suggested that locals call police if the serpents were spotted with their owner.
READ MORE: Serpent sighting sees locals insist they aren't snakes in the grass
Now we know exactly what the British public thinks about the issue of reptiles using public amenities.
YouGov - the generally sober and reliable online research company - has asked Britons a vital question: So long as they are kept under control, do you think it is acceptable or unacceptable for a person to bring their pet snakes to sunbathe in a park?
Only 24 per cent of the public are relaxed enough to think it is acceptable to sunbathe your snakes in public; a majority of 63% were dead set against it.
The remaining 13% were, understandably, nonplussed at the question and responded that they didn't know.
The nays rose considerably among self-identified Conservative voters: some 78% of Tories thought snakes should not be present in parks compared to 56% of Labour voters and 55% of illiberal Lib Dems.
Young people were more tolerant of public snakes with 41% of 18 to 24s considering it perfectly fine to bring your pet serpents to the park but only 20% of 50 to 64-year-olds agreed.
By region, residents of the Midlands were the most damning of seeing snakes share their parks with a whopping 69% saying it was unacceptable.
In Scotland, 57% said it was unacceptable and 29% said it was acceptable, higher than the UK average.
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The question of pets-in-parks arose after Twitter user Jamie Kinlochan shared a photo of the surprising sight of a sunbathing snake on the social media platform.
Some 20 snakes were seen enjoying the grass in Barshaw Park but, rather than being perturbed, the feeling from locals was that this was educational for young people and causing no harm.
It seems like the UK as a whole firmly disssssagrees.
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