Snake Preservation And Awareness

I am not going to lie, I am not a fan of PETA in the slightest. They are more obsessed with their image and their profits and most of the time they care less about the well being of animals than they do about making a stupid controversial billboard. Every now and then, however, they take a stand against something so horrible that I am forced to admit to some kind of agreement with them. In Southeast Asia, there is a growing industry for “exotic reptile skins”, namely the skins of pythons. This is all to sate the insatiable fashion demands in the EU and the US:

http://www.occupyforanimals.org/leather–pythons-are-the-latest-victims-of-fashions-new-obsession.html

“Small snakes are impaled on hooks or a nail is hammered through their heads into a tree, to skin them alive by making a small incision under the head and a long slice all the way down its stomach. The skin is grabbed from the top and peeled away in one piece. Once skinned, snakes are left to die, which can take 2–3 days.”

Of course, many will simply spout the same old apologetic about how what happens to these wild caught animals is no different from what we do to the billions of domestic farm animals that are equally as valuable and try the lazy old defense of cultural relativism. Never mind the fact that no slaughtered cows take three days to die nor are they skinned alive. There are regulations against this sort of horror in most civilized nations. In the end what these people really are saying is, “it’s a reptile, so I do not care”. This is more often the mentality that the advocates of PETA and other Animal Rights organizations take. I suppose it’s nice to see something different, what would be even better is if they did something about it.

Also, no, I do not think that the growing python problem in the Everglades should be solved by doing this to them. Those snakes can be removed and killed in a proper manner, there are no words to adequately describe the disgust I feel over this!