Snake Cell- SNAKE HANDLING & KEEPING

SNAKE HANDLING & KEEPING

Snake Handling - Snake Keeping - Legal Aspects

Snake Handling

If you are not a trained snake handler, avoid playing with snakes and do NOT handle with bare hands, unless its an emergency. However, if inclined to do so or you need to handle snakes for study or photography, use a snake hook or better still, a snake grabber/ tong, specially designed for the job. Also, you must never handle venomous snakes when alone. Must learn handling of snakes, under the guidance of well trained snake handler. Store live snakes in cloth-bags, which should be made of strong cloth and check for holes and weak points along the seams. Must replace these snake bags every season, as these get weaker with exposure to moisture, and a snake can tear open the bag by pushing with its head. Avoid handling snakes for fun or `show-off’’

or to be a `macho-man’; it is not worth it. Remember, anti venom serum can cause death also (some people are allergic to serums), in many cases it may lead to complications and result in ever lasting side-effects. So never fool around with snakes without a clear purpose.

Snake Handling Equipment: Snakes should never be handled with bare hands, no matter how expert one is. There are specially designed equipment/ gadgets being sold in the international market for herpetologists i.e. hooks, tongs, gloves, shoes, bags, etc. These come in various sizes and shapes, made of variety of materials. Word of caution: please do not use contraptions which you have not tested yourself, try and fabricate hooks with good material i.e. broken golf club makes a very good hook. Best is to buy a tested and tried branded equipment, its worth it. Always, make snake bags of dark colour cloth. more info..

Snake Keeping: Avoid keeping venomous or unknown snakes as pets: remember that they pose a hazard not only to you, but also to your family and neighbours. Also, we advise that as Indians we should not try keeping snakes as pets and there are a few reasons

for that. First of all, it is illegal in India. Only a researcher could do that to study the behaviour of snakes, even then a formal permission from the wildlife department has to be sought for the purpose. It is hard to understand the requirements of snakes, especially at different times under different circumstances. Also, in India we do not have good support system for such pets i.e. special food, equipment, clinics etc. Snakes could die easily under stress caused by frequent handling and changing temperature around them. One of the most difficult aspects of snake-keeping, therefore, is gaining the expertise required to know when things are not right; spotting the subtle differences in behaviour patterns which indicate that the animal is struggling to survive.

In India, snake-keeping is regarded as a somewhat suspicious occupation carried out by a few rather weird enthusiasts. We do not have any stock which is captive bred in zoos or pet-shops. All the snakes available through snake-charmers are caught from the wild, which means depletion of environment affecting your ecosystem adversely.

So, we would like to advise you to never keep a snake as a pet and deny him his basic `rights of freedom', as they are NOT meant to be in captivity. Also, avoid environmental depletion.

Legal Aspects: All reptile species are protected in India, through listing in the country’s wildlife conservation legislation – Wildlife Protection Act 1972. Keeping snakes without a proper legal permission would invite an `uncomfortable place’ in jail.

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