If you accept payment to "loan out" a living animal and then that animal gets intentionally harmed or mistreated as the expressed purpose of the loan, you're definitely at fault. Someone who owns that many snakes doesn't fork (likely literally using a fork based on the rest of this) them over without being present for the stunt or at least asking what the purpose will be. IMHO whoever claimed expertise enough to rent out, aid in, and supervise this stunt should be the one to be hung for this.

Also, I linked this on another thread but anyone who is emailing/facebooking about this should definitely use some of the language from this page:

http://www.straypetadvocacy.org/PDF/...rueltyLaws.pdf

By what I read, you don't really have to stretch to define this as animal cruelty. They're not farming, hunting, or doing research. They shouldn't be biting 4 oz animals that don't have fur or scruff.