Posted on 11/01/2026 9:22:07 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Bangkok’s firefighters do more snake catching than firefighting, and Pinyo Pukpinyo trains them. But he refuses to kill the snakes, and he’s running out of containers.
Once you see a snake in Bangkok, the snakiest capital in the world, you see snakes everywhere. Loops of electrical wire look like snakes. Gas pump hoses look like snakes. Vines, green and vibrant, look like snakes.
There are also, as Pinyo Pukpinyo knows, a lot of actual snakes. In Bangkok each year, about 30,000 snakes are caught by fire and rescue personnel. On an average half-day shift, Mr. Pinyo, the top snake catcher in Thailand’s capital, wrangles more than 20 snakes, the reptiles secreted in sewers, curled in flowerpots and toilets, enmeshed in recycling, and pressed against branches ready to snack on geckoes and tree shrews.
He catches cobras, pythons, kraits and pit vipers. Those are the scary snakes. Harmless species, at least to humans, include tree snakes, rat snakes, kukris and sunbeams.
Mr. Pinyo, 56, who joined Bangkok’s fire department at 18 only to discover that firefighters here do a lot more snake catching than firefighting, wants one thing known above all else: He does not kill the snakes he catches.
A spitting cobra slithering on the ground after its release during a training exercise led by Mr. Pinyo at his temporary fire station.
A man with a red megaphone addresses a line of people in dark blue uniforms, standing under a concrete structure. Morning roll call at the temporary fire station. “I wanted to catch bad guys like in the movies, not catch snakes,” said Mr. Pinyo, who trained as a police officer.
Part of it is his Buddhist faith. But mostly it’s that it’s not the...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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I would not want to participate in catching or keeping snakes. Why does he spend $300/month to feed them? I’d think there would be plenty of rats and mice for the catching around there.
One of the things I like about living here...no snakes!
Job security if you don’t kill the snakes!
Where to you l I’ve?
YOU live where?
(bedtime here, can’t read what I’m typing. You probably can’t either)
God bless him for doing everything he can to care for the snakes he catches, housing, feeding, and relocating them rather than killing them.
I personally like snakes, although I haven’t gone to the length of making pets of them — my wife and I live in a wooded area with lots of snakes, mostly harmless, and there are plenty around to satisfy my friendship with them. Plus they keep down the small critters that also inhabit the area.
Snakes got a bad rep early on. Some are nasty, sure, but the vast majority are just trying to do their snaky thing in peace. Plus, they’re really cool looking, many are downright beautiful.
The guy has more guts than I’ll ever know.
Mine are all sissy level snakes.
😊
I’m guessing you’re in Alaska. Because the “no snakes” thing was one big plus when I lived here.
When we lived in Hawaii the story was that there are no snakes there, either. No native snakes, at least. I’ve heard that stupid people are sneaking them in now, which is terrible. It seems that snakes could thrive in that climate.
I live where there are plenty of snakes and have never been bothered by one.
The only wild life that has ever done me wrong are mice and chipmunks.
Snakes prey on those creatures, so I count snakes as my alies.
In Florida most of us little kids were catching snake. I caught a black snake when I was 10 and he got loose in our house. But we never saw it again. Mom wasn’t happy.
If you visit Thailand Chiang Mai has a snake farm which is a decent place to see.
https://www.visitchiangmai.co/kingcobrachiangmaifarm/
Do you live in Ireland?
I heard a certain saint drove out all the snakes about 950 years ago.
kraits. Called “Twp steppers” in the military. One bite, you take two steps and you are dead.
***Alaska. Because the “no snakes” thing ***
WHAT? We were warned to watch out for SNOW SNAKES when I was sent there. I already knew what a Snow Snake was.
Snow snakes and ice worms. I remember!
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