Snake farming is on the rise in Kenya, with pet shops and zoos in the UK, Germany, and North America helping to drive demand, along with snakes being used in traditional medicine in China, according to a leading Kenyan newspaper. More Kenyans are reportedly interested in making money from snake farming after presidential candidate George Wajackoya pledged to boost snake farming as part of his election manifesto, saying that a vial of anti-venom, which is made from snake venom, could fetch Sh600,000 - about £4,200.

Snake farms have existed in Kenya for a long time, a public programmes officer at the National Museums of Kenya said. There are already more than 50 licensed snake farms, but there are more applications for licenses from the Kenya Wildlife Service awaiting approval. Many of the existing farms make their money from “ecotourism”. One farm with 1,800 snakes that was featured in a 2017 BBC story attracts around 350 daily visitors who come to see snakes up close and watch the employees perform “daredevil” acts like grabbing hold of deadly cobras. 

The snakes sometimes fight back, though. One employee was bitten by a cobra and had to have his legs amputated as a result. Another died after being crushed by a python because, as the farm owner said, “The snake felt threatened as the man attempted to get close to it to feed it a live adult goat.” Clearly, these snakes were not happy with being handled or put on display for the entertainment of tourists. The snakes on these farms are either bred or captured from the wild or brought to the farms after they've been found in people’s homes. 

Wajackoya’s support for snake farming is apparently based on wanting Kenya to be able to manufacture its own anti-venom. “A lot of people are bitten by snakes in this country and we have to wait for snake doses from outside the country from pharmaceutical organisations,” he said. Snake bites are a serious problem across Africa and in Kenya, around 1,000 people die from bites every year. But producing antivenom is not kind to animals, as it involves not only milking the venom from captive snakes but also injecting it into horses, goats, and other animals to make them produce antibodies, which are then harvested.

There have been some recent breakthroughs on that front, however, that could cut way down on the animals used to produce antivenom and that would be more effective and simpler to produce. Dutch researchers have used stem cells to create venom-producing glands from several snake species, while in India, researchers have sequenced the genome of the Indian cobra to isolate antibodies that are effective against its venom. A commitment to invest in the development of synthetic anti-venom would be a better long-term strategy for any presidential candidate.

The snakes raised on farms to be sold to zoos and pet shops abroad don’t have it easy either. A PETA investigation into U.S. Global Exotics (USGE), a huge exotic animal wholesale facility in Texas, found that snakes and other animals imported from all over the world were being confined to unhygienic and overcrowded enclosures with too few staff to attend to their needs. The snakes there were kept in shoebox-sized containers and not even their most basic needs were met, with many of them dying as a result. The snakes that survive this international trade to become pets often end up ill or dead because people fail to care for them properly.

In 2017, Kenya banned the export of several snake species to zoos and pet shops because of its impact on wild populations and their habitats. Rock pythons in particular were being poached from the wild to be sold abroad, interfering with the breeding patterns and development of remaining wild pythons. But other species remain at risk of being stolen from their homes or winding up on farms to entertain tourists.

Claire Hamlett is a freelance journalist, writer and regular contributor at Surge. Based in Oxford, UK, Claire tells stories that challenge systemic exploitation of and disregard for animals and the environment and that point to a better way of doing things.

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