I met with some friends in Coney Island today. It was kind of an unexpected meeting. My friend Cindy was going to the flea market with some people but when they got there, there wasn't much going on. There were only a few booths. So I suggested (as a cheap attraction) the freak museum where you can see a two headed cow, a two headed turtle, and a replica of a two headed baby. All for the bargain price of $3.
For some reason they had a cage full of python snakes. I have no idea why this would be included in a freak museum because I'm always seeing people carrying python snakes on the Coney Island boardwalk. We got to this attraction early, and I think they had just opened because there was a guy cleaning out the python cage...well it wasn't a cage exaclty it was a plexi-glass aquarium. The hatch in the back was open, and I noticed that one of the albino pythons was slithering out, while another one was following right behind him.
Hey, I think your snakes are making a break for it.
The guy went to the back of the aquarium, and slapped the second snake, REALLY HARD. I gasped, because it was quite brutal and I was a little surprised that the snake didn't just bite him back. He struggled with the albino python (who had pretty much made a clean escape) before putting it back in, and then closed the hatch but not before smacking the other snake one last time.
I know snakes are not soft and cuddly and it's not what one thinks about when they think about animal cruelty but snakes have feelings too. Also, the cage looked very small for the number of snakes that were in there. I am seriously thinking about calling the A.S.P.C.A.
I have heard pythons actually have very sweet personalities from people who keep them as pets. Those pythons were probably making a run for it for a good reason. Id give the ASPCA a call if you really feel uncomfortable with what you saw. You're a very empathic, compassionate person to think of others with no voice.
Posted by: Skip Myers | May 24, 2009 at 08:10 AM
PLEASE call the ASPCA. Silence witnesses are the only worse than the abuse.
Posted by: Brad | May 25, 2009 at 02:15 PM
I typed that all wrong! SILENT WITNESSES ARE THE ONLY THING WORSE... jeesh
Posted by: Brad | May 25, 2009 at 10:56 PM
Glad to hear you called the ASPCA. There's no excuse to treat animals like that. And yes, snakes have feelings too and didn't ASK to be showcased. The real freak is the asshole abusing them. Grrr. Please keep us up to date on this.
Posted by: Anne | June 11, 2009 at 11:06 PM