# Baby Plays With Cobra **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 8, 2007, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198 "2007-05-08T05:56:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/1 "2007-05-08T05:56:28Z")
[Oh My!](http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d3b_1178524471) (Nobody gets hurt, baby or snake - the snake obviously has no fangs or venom.) It is indeed mundane and pointless; well, maybe not mundane - I have never seen anything like this before. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/2 "2007-05-08T06:33:47Z")
Poor snake! “Goddamn it! Why isn’t this working?! This ALWAYS works!” ---
**Author:** ![Aioua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Aioua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aioua)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/3 "2007-05-08T06:35:51Z")
That’s kinda disturbing… there’s this… instinct in me that just shouts NO! every time the cobra strikes. If it was a full grown man it _might_ be funny, but with a baby its just bizarre and wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/4 "2007-05-08T06:46:28Z")
Meh. If there’s no venom or fangs, about the only thing that could happen is a snout-butt to the eye, and even then, I doubt the kid would sustain any real damage. The cobra’s in far more danger from the kid under these circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/5 "2007-05-08T07:18:51Z")
Still, teaching a kid to be unafraid of cobras is rather dangerous if he’s likely to run into the non-defanged ones, whether wild or captive. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/6 "2007-05-08T07:34:36Z")
[QUOTE=zagloba] Still, teaching a kid to be unafraid of cobras is rather dangerous if he’s likely to run into the non-defanged ones, whether wild or captive. [/QUOTE] Concurred; it’s like the inverse of Baby Albert. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/7 "2007-05-08T07:55:08Z")
Who knows? The kid’s parents could be herpetologists, just getting their baby used to the presence of snakes in his life. It’s tough to say that his parents wouldn’t later caution their son about the potential dangers of snakes. Hell, if more kids were conditioned with the idea that snakes aren’t necessarily bad while growing up, maybe we’d have fewer people that are so incredibly, ridiculously afraid of them. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/8 "2007-05-08T08:02:43Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] Hell, if more kids were conditioned with the idea that snakes aren’t necessarily bad while growing up, maybe we’d have fewer people that are so incredibly, ridiculously afraid of them. [/QUOTE] This is a cobra. Not a Garter snake. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/edb3f5/32.png) [@Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Push_Up_Bra)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/9 "2007-05-08T09:03:51Z")
I was pretty disturbed by it and wondered why no one else in the video was freaking out when it struck at the kid. I did think it was interesting how the kid kept inching towards it, trying to play and then finally caught it with both hands. Just shows how curious kids can be when they have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/10 "2007-05-08T09:13:08Z")
It looked like the video ended right at the time the kid was about to freak out. Having the snake thrash and coil around you would probably be the scary event. I wonder if there is a way to find out what the adults in the background were saying. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/11 "2007-05-08T12:33:40Z")
Yipe. Doesn’t strike me as a good idea. And where I’m from it’s a good idea to be scared of snakes. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/12 "2007-05-08T13:37:32Z")
I can’t think of a good reason why anyone should be deliberately desensitized to snakes – any more than one should be desensitized to sharks or wolves or rabid Baptist ministers. Taught to respect their existence, yes (the latter excepted), but not without a proper sense of distance and caution. To do otherwise is foolhardy. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/13 "2007-05-08T15:23:25Z")
Whoops–put post in the wrong thread. Edited out now. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/14 "2007-05-08T15:40:18Z")
Oooof, Jeez but that was disturbing. I was recoiling every time that snake hit, especially at the end when it was pelting the kid from point blank. Ugh, what’s the matter with those sick parents? That whole scene was just so wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/15 "2007-05-08T16:07:50Z")
I can’t watch this video. I just can’t. I flinch and feel sick every time the snake attacks. I stopped watching after 30 seconds or so. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/16 "2007-05-08T16:29:33Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield] I can’t think of a good reason why anyone should be deliberately desensitized to snakes – any more than one should be desensitized to sharks or wolves or rabid Baptist ministers. Taught to respect their existence, yes (the latter excepted), but not without a proper sense of distance and caution. To do otherwise is foolhardy. [/QUOTE] Total WAG, but I’m guessing it’s a family of professional snakehandlers. Who else would be likely to have a defanged, devenomed cobra hanging around the family hut? In that case, desensitizing the baby to the snakes AND desensitizing the family snakes to the baby are both very good ideas. Those voices weren’t far away, and someone was holding the camera - it wasn’t on a tripod. I don’t see any difference between this and a video of the family dog with the baby, except that we’re more used to seeing the family dog. (I was more flinchy imagining the family jewels scraping along that plastic “bamboo” mat with no diaper on, actually. But it didn’t seem to bother the kid.) ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/17 "2007-05-08T16:37:25Z")
Most of the replies to this thread strike me as pretty hysterical. The kid is in no danger, and as he grows up, his parents are going to say, “Hey, remember your pet cobra Schnookums? Be careful of wild cobras, because they have fangs, and they’re venomous. You don’t have to be _afraid_ of wild cobras. You are intimately familiar with their behavior and habits, so just be careful.” There. Problem solved, because there never was a problem to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![mischievous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mischievous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mischievous)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/18 "2007-05-08T16:44:22Z")
I giggled nonstop. That poor, poor snake. How humiliating that must be. It sounded like the background talk was Hindi - I’ve got several Hindi-speaking co-workers, I’m going to ask them for a report. I’ll get back to you guys later. mischievous ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/19 "2007-05-08T17:07:04Z")
[QUOTE=mischievous] I giggled nonstop. That poor, poor snake. How humiliating that must be. It sounded like the background talk was Hindi - I’ve got several Hindi-speaking co-workers, I’m going to ask them for a report. I’ll get back to you guys later. mischievous [/QUOTE] Please do. I think it’s kind of incomprehensible to us why people would let their baby play with a cobra, but it might make perfect sense in a different culture. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198/20 "2007-05-08T17:13:37Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] Who knows? The kid’s parents could be herpetologists, just getting their baby used to the presence of snakes in his life. It’s tough to say that his parents wouldn’t later caution their son about the potential dangers of snakes. Hell, if more kids were conditioned with the idea that snakes aren’t necessarily bad while growing up, maybe we’d have fewer people that are so incredibly, ridiculously afraid of them. [/QUOTE] I don’t know of too many herpetologists that are okay with the practice of removing a venomous snake’s venom glands and fangs. Either way, I can’t see the video at work, but from what’s been described, I’m a bit weirded out. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-plays-with-cobra/403198.md?page=2)