One by one, the soldiers line up to stretch out their tongues and lap blood dribbling from a headless cobra. It’s a defining image associated with regional joint military exercises led every year for the past four decades by the American and Thai militaries.
But last week, when soldiers from around the region convened for the 40th Cobra Gold exercises, no cobra blood was spilled, a move animal rights group PETA today took credit for.
“PETA exposed the fact that forcing service members to eat animals alive and suck down cobra blood is dangerous and cruel,” Jason Baker of PETA Asia said today in a statement. “Such barbarity needs to be relegated to the history books, and this year demonstrates that no animals should ever again be used at Cobra Gold events.”
There has been no formal announcement from either the Thai or U.S. military. PETA said that it was…
