Wednesday, February 8, 2017

The Man Who Kissed Snakes

Here’s a human interest story from The Daily Mail. As the old saying goes, What would we do without the Daily Mail?

Today’s story comes to us from India. It concerns a teenager named Somnath Mhatre. Aged eighteen he decided that he loved all of God’s creatures, but that he especially loved snakes. He chose to become a snake rescuer, saving defenseless animals from murderous humans.

One day, young Mhatre was so overcome with affection for a cobra he just saved that he, suffused with adolescent spontaneity, gave the snake a kiss. It was not the first time that he had kissed a snake. Unfortunately, it was the last.

Now, you want to know whether the little critter had returned the kiss. It did, but it went one better: it bit him. And not in the good sense of the word.

The Daily Mail picks up the story:

A teenager has died after he was bitten by a cobra while kissing it for a photo stunt.

Volunteer snake rescuer Somnath Mhatre, 18, plucked the cobra from a car in a bid to take it to a safe place.

But when he posed for a photo attempting to peck the snake on the head, the hooded animal turned on him, sinking its fangs into his chest.


The teenager was rushed to hospital in Navi Mumbai, India, where he fought for his life, but died five days later.

A fellow snake rescuer, who didn't want to be named, said: 'Somnath had gone to rescue a snake from a car at central business district Belapur.

'But after successfully rescuing the cobra, he took it to another location where was attempting to record his act of kissing the cobra on its head.

'It was during that photo-op the snake suddenly turned and bit Mhatre on his chest.'

Animal lover Mhatre - who had rescued more than 100 snakes - died on February 2.

Activists are now calling on the Forest Department to issue guidelines to take action against those involved in performing and posting pictures of stunts involving snakes. 

Now, tragically, the world has one less animal lover.

RIP.


The newspaper happily offers us a picture of Mahtre kissing another snake:

Somnath Mhatre, pictured during a previous snake kissing moment, died five days after he was bitten by a cobra he tried to kiss

4 comments:

Brookside said...

Poor guy. Snake handling is a risky business. He must of thought the snake appreciated being rescued and snakes have mystical associations in the east.
In the U.S., young men and alcohol are the more common risk factors for rattlesnake bites.

Sam L. said...

There's just one cure for stupidity. He got it.

Trigger Warning said...

Hm. I had a girlfriend like that once. Fortunately, she was not quite so toxic.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

Who said nature does not dispense justice?

What a fool. It's an unfortunate loss of human life, but this is the endgame for people who refuse to see things for what they are. In his case, it was a venomous snake... not a friend. I recognize this is a crazy concept.

I am often reminded of the Alaskans who rehabilitated a seal from the ravages of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. They bade farewell to said seal, and wished it bon voyage into the wilds of the sea. And the aquatic wilderness immediately gave its verdict, in the form of a killer whale, 5 yards offshore, which consumed the seal.

Sad, but true. Here is the simple truth: the wilderness is cruel to man. That's why we tamed it. This juvenile fascination with the pure beauty and delight of dancing with nature is silly. It is simply a substitute for religion with its own identical dogmatic lunacy to match ANY claim they employ to castigate standard religion. And their mantra: "Science says..."