Snakes on a Beauty Queen

Friday, 12 April 2013 | by Pat's Picks

Forget twirling the baton. At the Miss Snake Charmer contest in Sweetwater, Texas, contestants are expected to not only impress the judges with their poise, but also wade through a pit full of rattlesnakes. And the competition doesn’t stop there. Before taking home the tiara, the would-be beauty queens are expected to “handle scores of serpents, often ‘milking’ or gathering their venom, and beheading and skinning them.” Oh, and then they eat some snake too.

SOURCE: LA Times