Interesting Italian Snake Festival

ok i saw a quick news clip of this last week but forgot to follow-up on researching it a bit more. here's the news clip: https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news...int/vi-AAwBdVf

so it seems that every May 1st, Cocullo, a tiny Italian village of less than 300 peeps gets flooded by thousands of more peeps fore the annual Festa dei Serpari or Serpent Festival. they celebrate Saint Domenico who was the protector toothaches and healer of bites (i.e. snake bites) by parading a statue of him through town draped in locally caught snakes. apparently he also cleared the fields of thousands of snakes (like Saint Patrick did).

(actually historians beleive that the tradition goes back to ancient times of when the locals used to worship Angitia - the snake goddess.)

anyways here's some pix. they're a mix of non-venomous colubrids - four-lined, aesculapian, grass and green whip snakes. also some look real sizable!
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach..._DV1715665.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...Par8162927.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...000_14G7V3.jpg
read more and see more pix here: https://www.thelocal.it/20180502/pic...stival-cocullo

also an old article from 2014 says de-fanged :( (even tho they are non-venomous): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/ar...al-Snakes.html

anyways the snakes are re-released back into the wild after the festival. :)

Cool story. Thanks for sharing Ax!

Very cool!

...this is terrible. how are those poor animals going to be able to eat when they're released back into the wild? this is animal cruelty.

Way cool, I feel proud I’m half Italian.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

...this is terrible. how are those poor animals going to be able to eat when they're released back into the wild? this is animal cruelty.

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i'm not sure the extent of the de-fanging is as these snakes don't have fangs. i've only seen it mentioned in the older 2014 article and not anywhere else. but hopefully it is not a common practice for all the townsfolks. also the article does mention that they begin collecting the snakes a month prior and feed them hard boiled eggs (!) and mice. anyways if true, 1) they should stop, 2) i hope they snakes regenerate their teeth ASAP.

Looks like fun for all.

I do do wonder what the truth is behind removing fangs vs teeth and if all of them are released or not.

I have a hunch they just tell people that they're "de-fanged" so they don't worry...many people think all snakes have fangs, & these are being handled & all?
And if any of them yawn, "hey, see? No fangs!" They'd better NOT be pulling their teeth out! :O

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ax01

i'm not sure the extent of the de-fanging is as these snakes don't have fangs. i've only seen it mentioned in the older 2014 article and not anywhere else. but hopefully it is not a common practice for all the townsfolks. also the article does mention that they begin collecting the snakes a month prior and feed them hard boiled eggs (!) and mice. anyways if true, 1) they should stop, 2) i hope they snakes regenerate their teeth ASAP.

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i actually didn't even think about if they can regrow their teeth; i wonder how long that takes? regardless, any instance of defanging is cruel, and i bet it's still practiced due to the religious side of the fest and their antiquity.

those are incredible photos, tho. with the snakes on the statue. thanks for sharing.

As far as the snakes being "de-fanged", that might have been a language misinterpretation* also. I really don't think those wonderful quatuorlineatas would be as calm
& gracious about all the handling if their mouths were hurting, do you?

*It's only the 2nd article, & if the writer knew much of anything, he'd know it's impossible: The non-poisonous snakes have their fangs removed prior to the event