Quote Originally Posted by luckies4me
Why would the baby scream? It has no idea what is going on. Do you see any fear in the child's eyes? The kid is still a baby, and has no idea that this animal could have hurt her if it still had it's venom. The kid is clueless. The kids in these parts grow up with these snakes, some become snake charmers. They learn to respect the snakes from an early age. The parents teach them not to just go grab any snake they see, but being exposed to them early on helps them learn not to fear them.

I don't know if you know much about cobras or not, but it's very easy to get them to show their hood. If you watch the snake he doesn't look too worked up at all. He would have tried striking many many times if he were truly upset.

There is no difference between putting this child in front of a snake or putting a cat/kitten in front of it. A cat is going to do a lot more damage to the kid than this snake. But hey, us parents do it every day. How many toddlers you see walking around holding kittens by the head, pulling on ears and tails etc?

You gotta remember people, this is in INDIA, not the United States. Very different culture there!
Babies scream or cry if you drop pots and pans on the floor. They get scared if you jump out at them or say 'boo' just that little bit too suddenly. Thus I would imagine the quick action of a snake strike towards the face would shock a baby. Evidently not in this case, but it surprised me that she wasn't scared.

The part which I've highlighted in bold I think emphasises the point I was trying to make. If she doesn't have a clue what's going on, then she's not going to tell the difference between what to and not to touch. I appreciate what you said about not fearing them and being taught not to grab any snake, but she's not going to understand that until she's got some lingual skills. Once she starts to toddle around, no doubt she'll go for a wander in snake habitat, and that's when she's in danger.

Snake-charming is an age-old tradition but is dying out in our modernising world, for a start, it's declared illegal in India. They're no longer allowed to trap their own animals, and new forms of street entertainment have outdated it. Earnings are meager. I'm sure that many Indian parents will wish a more stable and profitable future for their sons and daughters now.

I know cobras can show their hood pretty easily, but that cobra is in striking stance almost all the time and to me at least he looks pretty peeved.

I did a bit of research on the process of defanging/devemonising, and from what it looks like it seems very difficult and precise. Seems like the botch rate is pretty high, no doubt in poor suburbs the sufficient technology to perform the operation is not always available. I researched a little further and found a couple of quotes on how many snake-charmer snakes suffer from mouth ulcers.

I see your point about how a kitten is no different to a snake in terms of behaviour with a baby, but I personally don't agree with letting kids and animals mix until the child has been fully taught when not to tug anymore, and that it should always be under adult supervision.