PETA says soldiers eating live animals in Thai ritual could spark another pandemic

After COVID-19 sent the world into a pandemic, animal rights group PETA warns that a shocking Thai joint military exercises program could send the world into yet another pandemic as soldiers eat live animals and drink snake blood.

According to ladbible, the Cobra Gold joint military exercises program, which takes place annually in Thailand, could send the world into a new pandemic. The shocking practises sees various training drills where soldiers are made to drink snake blood and eat live animals like geckos and scorpions.

PETA explains that troops from around the world are encouraged to kill and eat live animals as part of various 'survival exercises'. Last year, footage of American soldiers leaked online showing them skinning and eating live geckos, biting into lizards and scorpions, and drinking blood from a decapitated snake.

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The animal rights organisation is now calling for a complete ban of the event. “Last year, participants were recorded killing chickens with their bare hands, skinning and eating live geckos, consuming live scorpions and tarantulas, decapitating cobras and drinking their blood, and otherwise revelling in the ritualistic killing and consumption of animals," the group said in a statement.

Now, in a letter sent to UK Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace, the organisation explains that these practices could lead to a new pandemic. PETA is urging him to demand the organisers of the exercises “permanently replace the use of live animals in food procurement survival exercises with more effective and ethical animal-free training methods.”

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A call for action on the PETA website explains: "Shipping military personnel to Thailand to drink the blood of beheaded snakes is the kind of absurdity that could spark the next pandemic. The use of live animals during Cobra Gold poses a risk of spreading zoonotic diseases akin to Covid-19, endangering troops and the wider public. Viruses like SARS-CoV-2 likely originated in bats and were first transmitted to humans via contact with an intermediate animal host."

The post adds: "While the training exercise is marketed as a food procurement drill, officials have admitted it is intended to build camaraderie among troops in a manner resembling a barbaric hazing ritual. This goal could easily and safely be achieved through other means that don't involve causing animals to suffer and die."

  Image courtesy: PETA