US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparks concern after handling live snakes in viral video, highlighting his history of eccentric animal antics
WASHINGTON: A viral video of US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. picking up two writhing black snakes with his bare hands has put his often bizarre adventures with animals back in the spotlight.
Kennedy is an unusual government minister, surrounded by controversy over his fringe views that edge into conspiracy theories.
He’s expressed skepticism about vaccines, falsely linking childhood immunizations to autism, and insisted that fluoride in public drinking water is unsafe.
And numerous stories have emerged about Kennedy’s offbeat antics involving animals, accentuating his eccentric image.
In 2024, Kennedy acknowledged in a video that a decade earlier, he had put a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park with a bicycle to make it look like a biking accident.
He said he had found the bear upstate after it had been hit by a car, and had put it in his vehicle to skin it, but then abandoned the plan. The case mystified authorities for years.
According to a story recounted by his daughter, Kennedy also used a chainsaw to cut off the head of a dead whale that had washed ashore in Massachusetts.
He then strapped it to the roof of the family minivan to take it home to study its skull, she said.
Similarly, in a 2026 biography, Kennedy said he cut off the penis of a road-killed racoon to study it later.
In another case, the New York Times reported that a doctor found a dead parasitic worm in Kennedy’s brain after he had complained of memory loss. He said he has recovered with no lasting impact.
None of these stories seem to embarrass Kennedy, the son of Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 while running for president.
“He has a relationship with animals that most of us only dream of. Nightmares are also dreams,” wrote Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse.
‘Don’t copy him’
In the latest animal adventure, Kennedy on Tuesday posted a video of himself on X picking up two thin black snakes by their tails from the corner of an outdoor patio.
Wearing a tie and dress shirt, he holds up the writhing snakes and smiles.
At one point, he appears to be bitten by one of the snakes, while off camera a woman’s voice says, “Bobby, Bobby, please.”
“Cheryl cheerleads the removal of a pair of Black Racers from Dr Oz’s patio,” Kennedy’s caption reads, an apparent reference to his wife, actress Cheryl Hines.
Mehmet Oz is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the health department Kennedy heads.
Black racers “are non-venomous and harmless to humans as long as they are left alone,” according to the National Park Service.
Cameron Young, of the Center for Snake Conservation, warned that people should not pick them up as they will bite.
“What I don’t want is people copying him,” Young told AFP. “If a kid picks up a venomous snake because RFK did, then the kid may receive a medically significant bite.”
