Date published: 22nd May 2025

In this Guest Blog, the adder author Nicholas Milton recommends reporting sensationalist or inaccurate media stories to the Independent Press Standards Organisation.

When it comes to the media, no other species of British wildlife generates as many negative, misleading and damaging stories as the adder. As part of the research for my book ‘The Secret Life of the Adder – The Vanishing Viper’ I put the word adder into Google and then clicked on news stories for a season. I analysed dozens of negative headlines, many about snakes biting dogs or people, and from this concluded that a lot of stories were sensationalist or inaccurate. 

As examples in 2022 The Daily Mail ran with the headline ‘Never mind the sharks, look out for the snakes! Surge in venomous ADDERS on Britain's beaches threatens staycationing families’, while The Daily Mirror wrote ‘Dog bitten in the face by 15ft adder as heatwave sparks vet warning over snakes’. As people interested in reptile conservation, we have all read similar snake scare stories and know that most are exaggerated or untrue. However, given all the other threats facing the species does it really matter - and even if it does, what we can do about it?

Examples of headlines, from Nick Milton’s book The Secret Life of the Adder (Photo: Nick Milton)

As a former journalist I know only too well how hard it is to generate positive publicity about our only venomous snake. Despite the species being in serious decline across much of Britain, most of the media seems uninterested in its fate. Instead, they use adders to generate a stream of horror headlines each year, many appearing in The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror and in local and regional papers. While some media like the Guardian and the BBC are more responsible in their reporting, convincing any media outlets to run positive stories on adder conservation remains a serious challenge. 

In recent years the mainstream media has declined in importance, but it is still where most of us find out what is going on locally and in the world. People who pride themselves in reading The Guardian or The Telegraph may never buy The Sun or The Daily Mail or click on their websites. However, whether we read the tabloids or not, the mass media still has a huge influence on the British public, and the way they report on adder stories matters to the species survival. 

Many tabloids generate their income through clickbait journalism, stories about snakes biting dogs or people generating many more clicks than ones which focus on their amazing ecology, history, contribution to our literature or conservation. This continuous focus on reporting adder scare stories has perpetuated many damaging myths, accentuated the snakes 'image problem' and, in my opinion, directly contributed to the decline of the species. 

The editors of the tabloids, who are the worst perpetrators when it comes to adder scare stories, will always use the public interest in their defence. What they often fail to report is that the dog was off the lead in a wildlife area (in breach of the Countryside Code) or the person interfered with the snake. Or that most dogs and people make a full recovery, due to improved understanding of and treatment for adder bite.

These type of scare stories in newspapers, magazines and on digital news are regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO; see: www.ipso.co.uk/.) It is their job to ‘uphold high editorial standards to protect the public and freedom of expression’. IPSO publishes an Editors’ Code of Practice and while it does not specifically cover animals or their welfare (a major omission given they have no voice), the Code does have a role to play in ensuring accuracy in reporting stories about all snakes. It states:

i)    The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.

ii)    A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and — where appropriate — an apology published. 

Given the above criteria, many snake scare stories are potentially in breach of the Code. The good news is making a complaint to IPSO about an adder story is quick and easy. There is an online form which just requires the name of the publication, a link to the article if available, copies of any correspondence between you and the publication and your contact details. If you are not happy with their ruling you then have the right to take your complaint to IPSO’s Complaints Committee, comprising 12 members and currently chaired by Lord Faulks (see: www.ipso.co.uk/what-we-do/our-people/complaints-committee/)

So please if you see an article in a newspaper, magazine or online which is inaccurate or wrong about adders, make a complaint to IPSO. I reported both the stories in The Daily Mail and Daily Mirror referred to earlier in this article to IPSO who, regrettably, did not rule in my favour, instead concluding that they did not breach the Editors’ Code. These rulings are wrong in my view as adders don't threaten families or grow to 15 feet. However, both complaints had to investigated and the papers concerned had to defend their reporting. As every complaint must be investigated, just by submitting one you are helping to highlight the issues and driving change in the industry. 

The adder is reliant on us to call out untrue stories and bring those cases to IPSO. Since the publication of my book in 2022 and the complaints I made to the regulator, I believe the number of negative stories about adders in the press has decreased. However, there are still far too many inaccurate headlines and sensationalist stories. If more people took the time to complain to papers and to the regulator, editors would be forced to think twice before running snake scare stories, and the adder may eventually get the fair and balanced press it deserves.  

Nick Milton is author of “The Secret Life of the Adder: The Vanishing Viper” (White Owl, 2022). You can purchase this book in the ARC online shop.

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ARC runs guest blogs to share opinions relevant to our work conserving amphibians and reptiles. Guest blogs do not represent a statement of ARC’s views. If you would like to submit a blog for consideration, please contact [email protected].