snakes need saving!! :(

(tw for animal abuse!!)

okay so you guys know snake charming? u probably saw it in a cartoon or maybe in a movie and you just kinda accepted that snakes like music or something and then moved on with your life because u were a kid. a lot of people probably havent seen a video of it, or maybe they didnt pay too much attention because who cares abt if snakes like tunes?

but, i RLLY RLLY care about if snakes like tunes because i think snakes are awesome and so cool and amazing so when i first saw a video of actual snake charming i was VERY disappointed. just for some context, here's a link to the video i saw of a cobra being "rescued": sorry guys its on twitter but its nothing graphic but obviously the same tw applies 

ill also summarise the video (ur welcome :p)

so this guy pulls up to a tumbleweed and just drags it out of the way to expose the indian cobra hiding underneath it. the cobra tries to get back under the tumbleweed but the guy just gets rid of it completely. then he gets his pungi (woodwind instrument, img below) and puts it right in the cobras face and plays it to the poor little guy. the cobra gets up into its defensive position (another img below) and tries to strike at the pungi, but it misses because the guy is swinging it back and forth in front of the cobra. then it gicves up, still in its defensive position and following the pungi with its head, but no longer striking. this is a "hypnotised" cobra... and at no point does the video show any attempt at saving it btw

(guy playing a pungi (to cobras ofc) and a king cobra in its defensive position (not an indian cobra but its the same position lol))

so... we can all see why this is abuse, right?  firstly its rudely interrupted in its "natural" habitat (talk abt this later), then it gets something shoved in its face and loud vibration start that scare it. they tease the poor guy and call it a "rescue". obviously i had to check the replies bc i wanted to know more and i had my ideas confirmed (although most of the replies were ppl talking abt how the snake has good music taste (sybau)).

sooo i did my research and yeah "snake charming" is a tradition of animal abuse that's been turned into entertainment

indian cobras like to live in plains, wetlands and forests where there's plenty of water because cobras love water, theyre great swimmers, but in the video this cobra is living in a desert (semi arid desert... i took geography in high school...) under a tumbleweed. reason? it actually is already in captivity and my guess is it has been left by its captors in this desert to starve and dehydrate it.

snake charmers dehydrate and starve their cobras to make them slower and docile, they cant use their energy to be aggressive if they have no strength in them, so theyre easier to handle because obviously these snakes arent hypnotised in any way and would fight back if they had the ability to.

other ways snake charmers make cobras "easier to handle" is by defanging them, literally just tearing out their teeth, obviously with no sort of pain relief for the cobra. they also remove the venom from the cobra by squeezing its head till its venom gland is fully drained. in some cases they actually sew the cobras mouth shut, leaving only a little gap so they can pour milk into its mouth so its just strong enough to keep dancing for them.

then they'll parade these poor little guys around, showing off how talented they are by "charming" this dangerous, deadly creature. they use them for entertainment, profit, and show them off to tourists so ignorant people can be impressed and also give them more money. then in our media we glamorised snake charming in cartoons and movies despite the fact that the snakes are being tortured and forced to "dance"

im literally so sad rn yall dont even know

BUT there is good news!!

firstly, snake charming was made illegal in the late 90s. apparently that made a large positive impact  because many of the animal abusers affected by this protested, demanding the law be reverted. this has not happened (yipee). ofc it DOES still happen because the law isnt enforced strictly enough, apparently its not uncommon to see it on the streets, BUT there are plenty of animal protection charities such as PETA and Friends Of Snakes, which i much prefer ofc, that help protect and rescue snakes that are still being abused (as well as other conservation efforts ofc) so if you want to support the protection of snakes in general id highly recommend donating to Friends Of Snakes :D theyre based in india and they do cool things like rescuing over 100 snakes after a flood

ok so that was all very sad so now im gonna post a bunch of pictures of snakes bc theyre so cool

byeeeee thx for reading :p

lmaoooo he's such a little guy