Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Heres a quote I took from a PETA website:

"During Naag Panchami, PETA activists spread the message about the hidden cruelty behind the festival, where snakes have their teeth yanked out and their mouths sewn shut. One snake was being denied food and water by a snake charmer and made to drink milk, which can be deadly to snakes. Chand, as PETA named the snake, is now living free in Borivali National Park in Mumbai. "

If true this treatment of snakes sounds truly horrible, however I often question the accuracy of PETAs reporting on many issues. It seems unlikely and unnecessary that anyone dealing with snakes, even if they cared nothing for the animal and only wanted to make money off tourists, would sew a snakes mouth shut, yank out its teeth or feed it milk. It also would seem unlikely that such a practice would be worthwhile at all because i can't imagine the snake being able to feed let alone survive after some of these practices. I could be totally wrong, but the accusation seems a little outlandish to me. Just curious,

Vanth

>>"During Naag Panchami, PETA activists spread the message about the hidden cruelty behind the festival, where snakes have their teeth yanked out and their mouths sewn shut. One snake was being denied food and water by a snake charmer and made to drink milk, which can be deadly to snakes. Chand, as PETA named the snake, is now living free in Borivali National Park in Mumbai. "

There have long been reports of snake charmers in india yanking out fangs and even venom glands and even sewing mouths shut. When I was in NW india about 10 years ago, quite a few of the cobras I saw being "charmed" had suspicious looking shapes to the sides of their mouths like something had been done to them.

As for the milk, I don't know where they got the ridiculous fact that milk is deadly to snakes (maybe if you drown one in it?). But then again, PETA is not known for relying on factual information for their statements.
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Chris Harrison

And I've seen pics froma link in another forum of snakes with their teeth yanked out, apparently by allowing them to bite into something like fabric and pulling it away quickly. But who knows....on the milk thing though, most animals are lactose intolerant and my guess would be that snakes are no different (humans aren't as much because we keep drinking milk throughout our lives and so keep making the enzyme that processes the milk sugar), and the small amount of milk they might get in the stomach of a pinkie isn't enough to be a problem and/or already has lactase from the pinkie working on it. I don't know what the reslts would be in a snake but if that was fed in large amounts I wouldn't be surprised if it could kill the animal.
ya never know with PETA, they are sometimes prone to exaggeration to help their cause but sometimes they have a point
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Sue Barnett
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