Okay, so the hook isn’t that great, as others have mentioned. It’s really only usable for smaller/lightweight snakes. I had gotten a two-pack of basically the exact same hook a few months ago, and I’ve used them once or twice, but the way that the hook is shaped, it just doesn’t work for my adult ball pythons.However, the telescoping hook can certainly be used for other random things — I’ve personally used one to turn on the bathroom fan while sitting on the toilet lolSo the hook is still useful, just maybe not for some snakes.Anyway, the gloves are really why I’m giving this 5 stars. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve ordered on here that say “leather” but then it turns out to just be some kind of foam or pleather.These gloves are REAL leather. The smell of them upon opening the bag is just wonderful.They’re quite large, too (they actually go up to the top of my bicep!). They probably would be perfect for protecting against snake bites, but honestly, the thickness of the leather kind of makes it so that there’s limited dexterity in the fingers, so I don’t think I’ll be using them to pick up my snakes at all.Having said that, though, I do think that they’ll be PERFECT if I find myself in a situation where I need to rescue an injured wild animal or something. I mean, the dexterity is still something of an issue, so I wouldn’t use them for a small bird or squirrel maybe, but anything larger and with teeth and claws, these should do the trick, safety-wise.In person, the color of the gloves is a bit more of a dark teal rather than light blue like the pictures, but that’s not an issue for me. Like I said, the fact that these are real leather is a huge plus in my book.