US troops will reportedly no longer drink snake blood as part of their annual jungle survival training in Thailand, according to animal rights activists PETA. The controversial practice had been a staple of the decades-old course.
Photos and videos of the practice from previous editions of the multinational ‘Cobra Gold’ joint training initiative, which involves decapitating a live snake, are widely available online. Other highlights of the 10-day program include the consumption of scorpions and the skinning of geckos.
Animal rights groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), had called for a ban on such activities. The campaigning organization, which apparently learnt about the practices only last year, has likened them to “frat party” events “gone wrong” and organized protests in recent months outside the Pentagon to call for a ban.
With Cobra Gold’s 2021 edition winding up this month, PETA has now stated that snake blood drinking has been removed from the program. It cited information about the cancelation from Amnuay Kerdkaew, director of joint operations at the Royal Thai Air Force. The claim has not yet been independently verified.
In a statement, PETA UK said that an “intense campaign” had “put pressure on Cobra Gold organizers to stop gruesome training in which troops previously beheaded snakes, killed chickens with their bare hands, ate live scorpions, and gutted live geckos.”
The organization notes that, while the training exercise is “marketed as a food procurement drill,” officials have apparently admitted it is intended to “build camaraderie among troops in a manner resembling a barbaric hazing ritual.”
However, Thailand’s defense forces chief, General Chalermpol Srisawat, had previously said this year’s Cobra Gold program would be scaled down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with several drills adjusted or canceled, and smaller-scale exercises being conducted instead.
“This sort of training doesn’t actually deliver any survival skills. In fact, the US Marine Corps has admitted that the primary goal … is to attempt to build friendship between the two countries,” Nirali Shah, a spokesperson for PETA Asia, told Vice News.
Shah added that there were other ways to build camaraderie between soldiers without subjecting live animals to suffering. In July, PETA sent a letter signed by military veterans to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III that said the “extreme” animal abuse “risks public health, dishonors the uniform, and threatens species vulnerable to extinction.”
Describing the use of live animals as a “vulgar hazing ritual” that does not “deliver any practical survival skills,” the letter also warned that the “bloodlust exercises” posed a “serious zoonotic disease threat.” It cited the examples of the Covid-19 virus, Ebola, and Zika to highlight that risk.
PETA UK said it had cited similar concerns in a letter calling on British Defence Minister Ben Wallace to demand that Cobra Gold organizers switch to “more effective and ethical animal-free training methods.”
Originally designed to encourage American and Thai soldiers to exchange military tactics and skills, the program was first held in Thailand in 1982. It has since grown to involve nearly 30 countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea.
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