Do you *hate* any animals?

[RubyDG]

I have an intense dislike for primates (not including humans but not completely excluding them either ). I say intense dislike and not hate because I don't wish them dead but I don't like them and never will. It was interesting reading this thread and seeing that a fair number here feel the same way.

On the other hand I have an all encompassing fear of lizards, geckos, iguanas etc etc. I'm not fussed with creepy crawlies and am perfectly fine with snakes (and crocodiles even) but give it four little legs and I become completely irrational and have a complete mental break down. We're talking rocking back and forth in a corner and filled with sedatives type of breakdown. I don't remember it, not consciously anyway, but my father told me that when I was a baby I was attacked by a monitor lizard. Look up monitor lizards yourselves because I'm not going to look for pictures. I had told my husband, then boyfriend, that I had phobia about lizards but until the cat brought a live wriggling one to me while I was sick in bed one day and I had a complete breakdown he never really understood. It ended with him holding me on the floor of the bathroom while I freaked out. He has never once joked or teased me about my phobia since then. I know logically that it is a completely irrational fear but that's the definition of a phobia - it's an irrational fear. No matter how silly or stupid I may personally feel someone's phobia is I respect their feelings and the fact that it is a phobia and don't start trying to make arguments about how logically it's a silly fear. I am eternally grateful that I now live in a country where the likelihood of coming across one of them is very small. Although once I went to a co-workers house and she had tame bearded dragons. I walked/ran straight out of the house and called her on my way to the bus stop to tell her about my phobia and apologised - I then had a nice shaking and crying fit and ended up getting a taxi home instead. Since then if I am visiting someone I don't know extremely well (and therefore know they don't have a lizardy pet) I always ask if they have any pet lizards. I still get bothered if I am reading a thread and someone posts a picture of their pet lizard - but that's my problem as I certainly don't expect people not to post pictures of their pets on an animal forum.

Oops - I have rambled on haven't I? Long story short - be respectful of other people's phobia's!

[Thin Lizzy]

Wasps! They freak me out! They look so angry close up and I've had too many close encounters with them, years back our dog was attacked by a load of wasps and stung several times and I really thought that was it but, thanks to the vet she survived.

Blue Bottles! I had one in my flat years ago, and it was flying and hitting off everything in my kitchen, I finally killed it but then spent a couple of hours disinfecting everything in my kitchen.

But, my biggest phobia is black crows, seagulls and pigeons - when I was in primary school, I saw Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds" and had nightmares, I also feared going out for a while. Even years later, They still scare me. Seagulls have gotten bigger and fatter over the years and they can be well over 4ft wide when they spread their wings out.
Pigeons weren't in the film 'The Birds' but, when I was in London over 20 years ago, I freaked out in Trafalgar Square when several dozen started flying about.