Yeah...people are jerks. I suggest either straight up ignoring it or, as someone mentioned, just going with it and throwing them off.
Honestly, I would just ignore them. Not trying to judge, since I don't actually know these people but it sounds like they wouldn't even care if you just went with it...those types of people own snakes for the sole purpose of doing what they're doing: being 'edgy' and 'freaking people out'. Cut them off and don't give them an audience. "Ooh, you have a snake...Gee, you must be reeeaaally tough." Not. Odds are it's a ball python and they got it off of kijiji or from a buddy less then a year ago and don't even know anything about it. They just wanted a status symbol.
I'm enclosing a mini rant under a spoiler because it goes into a little more detail that I'm sure not everyone wants to read. Feel free to delete it, if it's felt to be excessive though it should quite tame.
[spoil:3u1abyaq]Honestly, the only reason I'm putting this under spoilers at all is because there's going to be off-hand mentioning of FT. Nothing hardcore but I know some people don't like thinking about feeders at all and I respect that. Though, if they've come this far in the topic, odds are that ship has sailed. But, worst case scenario, I don't want to get yelled at lol. Also, I might use mild language...I'll star it out and everything but yeah...
Anyways, back to the topic. I feel ya. I'm so tired of these Dbag frat types making everyone, including ME look like a jack*ss. When I tell people I keep snakes, I expect to be treated like I'm a horrible person because of it. Because the most public face of not only snake, but reptile keepers are jerks. People don't care that those types aren't representative of the hobby, they don't care that those idiots cycle through snakes faster then a cheap pair of socks. These people usually only have these animals for a couple of months before A) they get tired of it or B) the poor thing dies from improper care.
And the whole rat vs snake thing, I see way too much of working in the exotic pet industry. Back when I was manager at a large-chain-unnamed-for-legal-reasons petstore, I refused so many sales just because they were this kind of person. (Technically, I was not supposed to do that, which probably contributed to my unhappy leaving of the place but whatever. If that's the way it's gonna be then I'm glad to be gone)
A prime example was, really the only snakes we got in were baby Ball Pythons. For those who care or don't know, bps have a (undeserved) reputation for being hard to feed FT too. So, naturally, people gravitate to them because A) they're readily available which means that B) they're cheap and C) they come with a ready-made excuse to feed live. Now, I take a lot of pride in producing healthy, stable animals. I don't sell anything that's only eating every 3rd tuesday of the month, provided there's a southwest wind blowing. I teach animals in my care to eat properly and I do this by knowing how to make the snake comfortable and understanding how they work psychologically. These myths of bps starving themselves because the horrible owner tried to *gasp* feed it FT are nothing but crap. More and more excuses made up to justify lazy, immature and irresponsible behaviour.
Snakes, like everything else have survival instincts. Everything they do, they do to stay alive. Turning down perfectly good food again and again just because it isn't alive is against it's very nature and, if that's happening, it's not that the snake 'wants' live...something else is wrong with it.
If I had a dollar for every time somebody brought me a ball python or any other snake that "won't take live", I'd be the richer then Saudi Arabia. And I have never fed live in my life and never will.
Anyways, one day I had this guy looking at one of my bps and he was asking about it. He was a 20 something college guy so I was already on high alert. Then he was asking what it was eating. I told him it had a great appetite and was doing extremely well on FT. He looked at me and laughed and said "Not for long! No frozen at my house." Without a second thought, I told him that the animal was no longer for sale. He asked about another bp and I told him I wasn't going to sell him anything, so long as he fed live. I calmly explained why and he just laughed and said he'd go somewhere else. I told him that if that's what he chose to do, I couldn't stop him but advised not to spend too much money on something that's either going to be killed by a rat or die from infection.
I've had this conversation countless times. Some people you get through too, most you don't. Such is life.
I don't really know what the point of all this is...I guess I just wanted to share. Sorry for the rant and sorry if I upset anybody. Please know it was not my intention.
/endrant[/spoil:3u1abyaq]