Restaurant in Thailand lets customers choose live cobras before eating them
- 4 years ago
A gruesome restaurant in Thailand lets customers to choose live cobras then eat them.
The cafe on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, has a concrete pit where it keeps the deadly snakes caught from surrounding villages.
Diners can even reserve a reptile if there is one that is particularly juicy.
Owner Jae Sa then reaches into the pit stuffed with the killer cobras and plucks them out with a hook - before clubbing them over the head.
Chefs then skin from the serpents, drain the blood to be used in snake liquor and chop the body into pieces.
Astonishingly, the snake's tail and flesh still wriggles around up until the moment they are placed into a pan to be deep-fried.
Jae Sa also makes 'cobra mince', a delicacy that is served to customers sitting on the wooden tables and concrete floor.
The little-known restaurant is popular with locals who believe the fresh snake meat brings powerful health benefits.
Jae Sa, who has survived being bitten by a cobra on her wrist, said: ''People find the snakes around the area then sell them to me.
''I've been bitten once on my wrist and I used a tourniquet on my arm to stop the venom spreading. There was no pain just numbness on the side of the body. I went to hospital but it's better now.''
The restaurant owner said the cobras are caught by people in surrounding villagers who then sell them to her for 450 baht. She serves up one cobra meal for 1,000 baht. The snake skin, blood and organs are sold separately.
Although King Cobras are a protected species in Thailand, the monocled cobra used at the restaurant is not so catching and cooking them is perfectly legal.
However, animal charity PETA said the restaurant is ''cruel and unnecessary'' and warned that it could even ''start the next pandemic''.
Spokesman Nirali Shah said: ''Snakes are sensitive and can feel pain. Like all animals, they don’t want to die for a fleeting taste. Not only is the capturing and reckless killing of these cobras - who are often skinned alive, as seen in this footage - for human consumption cruel and unnecessary, but it could even start the next pandemic.
''Any health authority will confirm that most influenza viruses and coronaviruses are zoonotic, transmissible from other animals to humans. Therefore, any restaurant or industry that involves human handling of exotic animals poses a risk of transmission for a newly evolved virus. It does not matter if the animals are bred for meat or skins, or if the trade is legal or illegal – interfering with wild animals could lead to the next pandemic.
''As the current coronavirus - which originated in animals killed for their flesh - continues to spread, PETA urges the public to cut off animal-borne pathogens at the source by going vegan. Until then, humans will always be at risk of future pandemics and countless animals will needlessly endure miserable lives and violent, painful deaths.''
The cafe on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, has a concrete pit where it keeps the deadly snakes caught from surrounding villages.
Diners can even reserve a reptile if there is one that is particularly juicy.
Owner Jae Sa then reaches into the pit stuffed with the killer cobras and plucks them out with a hook - before clubbing them over the head.
Chefs then skin from the serpents, drain the blood to be used in snake liquor and chop the body into pieces.
Astonishingly, the snake's tail and flesh still wriggles around up until the moment they are placed into a pan to be deep-fried.
Jae Sa also makes 'cobra mince', a delicacy that is served to customers sitting on the wooden tables and concrete floor.
The little-known restaurant is popular with locals who believe the fresh snake meat brings powerful health benefits.
Jae Sa, who has survived being bitten by a cobra on her wrist, said: ''People find the snakes around the area then sell them to me.
''I've been bitten once on my wrist and I used a tourniquet on my arm to stop the venom spreading. There was no pain just numbness on the side of the body. I went to hospital but it's better now.''
The restaurant owner said the cobras are caught by people in surrounding villagers who then sell them to her for 450 baht. She serves up one cobra meal for 1,000 baht. The snake skin, blood and organs are sold separately.
Although King Cobras are a protected species in Thailand, the monocled cobra used at the restaurant is not so catching and cooking them is perfectly legal.
However, animal charity PETA said the restaurant is ''cruel and unnecessary'' and warned that it could even ''start the next pandemic''.
Spokesman Nirali Shah said: ''Snakes are sensitive and can feel pain. Like all animals, they don’t want to die for a fleeting taste. Not only is the capturing and reckless killing of these cobras - who are often skinned alive, as seen in this footage - for human consumption cruel and unnecessary, but it could even start the next pandemic.
''Any health authority will confirm that most influenza viruses and coronaviruses are zoonotic, transmissible from other animals to humans. Therefore, any restaurant or industry that involves human handling of exotic animals poses a risk of transmission for a newly evolved virus. It does not matter if the animals are bred for meat or skins, or if the trade is legal or illegal – interfering with wild animals could lead to the next pandemic.
''As the current coronavirus - which originated in animals killed for their flesh - continues to spread, PETA urges the public to cut off animal-borne pathogens at the source by going vegan. Until then, humans will always be at risk of future pandemics and countless animals will needlessly endure miserable lives and violent, painful deaths.''