Snakes Freed By Buddhists For Karma To Freeze To Death

Officials are hunting for hundreds of snakes released into the wild by a group of karma-hungry Buddhists as they now look set to freeze to death.

Members of the Forestry Bureau were called urgently to the village of Nanzhangjing in Jingxing County in North China’s Hebei Province and on 19th October began looking for more than 300 snakes which are expected to freeze to death in the coming months.

The serpents, mostly of the nonvenomous king ratsnake (Elaphe carinata) variety, were shipped to the village outskirts in boxes and dumped on the side of the road without authorisation, officials said.