Thursday, May 10, 2007

A small child playing with a cobra - Update

Apparently this is a snake-charming rite of passage from Kasimkota in Andhra Pradesh in India.

The snake has had its mouth stitched up and its fangs removed for the amusement of spectators.


Apart from wanting to stop cruelty to cobras, animal rights protesters warn that fangs grow back quickly and put children at risk in villages where snake charmers urge young locals to become revered handlers.

Several people are killed each year. And the headman of Kasimkota - which has 60 families of "snake people" - died when he was bitten on the thigh by a supposedly safe cobra.

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