By Sammy Ketz
AFP

© February 18, 2008 - All rights reserved






MARRAKESH, Morocco - The men working in Marrakesh's Djemma el Fna square may be able to charm the snakes and tourists, but their magic fails to work with the animal rights activists pushing to have the practice banned as cruel.

Long one of the city's main attractions, the charmers say they take care of their snakes "like their children".

But a French animal rights group is calling on tourists to boycott the snake charmers, who they say are mistreating the reptiles.

The Study and Observation Group to Protect Wild Animals (GEOS) urges visitors to "shun the indecent spectacles that mistreat the animals, or better yet express your indignation" to the authorities.

The boycott appeal received 200 signatures in the first few days after its launch, according to its initiator Michel Aymerich.

The 49-year-old Moroccan-born French political scientist admits he is a fan of "nature's most unloved": snakes, scorpions and spiders.

"You have to know that the snakes are deaf and respond only to gestures. The cobras rise up to the flute not because of the music, but because they feel threatened and instinctively adopt a defensive position, rise up and give that spectacular display of its hood," said Aymerich.

"Moreover, for the most part they remove their poisonous fangs or glands, which causes abscesses and a slow and painful death."

Defanged or not, Aymerich says the snakes are under terrible stress and die after just several weeks of performing. Their normal life span would have been 12 to 15 years.

"These people are completely ignorant of our profession," the doyen of Marrakesh snake charmers, 80-year-old Lhoussine Hajjaj told AFP.

"These reptiles are like our children. We look after their education, diet and health because they are our money earner."

The snakes are fed eggs, birds and even sheep hearts.

"When one of the snakes is tired we ask a veterinarian to prescribe it medication," he said.

He strongly denied as "false rumours" that the charmers remove the fangs and poison glands of the snakes.

"If that is true why are there casualties among us?"

Hajjaj also disputed claims that the cobras died after only several months.

"That's false because there is a cobra that has been on Djemma el Fna for more than 10 years," he said.

Most of the snakes come from Morocco's southern Guelmim region, according to Aymerich, trapped by members of the Aissaoua Brotherhood religious order who supply many protected animals to Marrakesh's market.

Aymerich would like the region turned into a nature park, with the Aissaoua becoming guides for tourists.