For an Indian woman living in Florida, an evening stroll turned into a moment of realisation about how different communities respond to animals in distress. “If this was in India, they would rush to help,” Rithu Rathee said in a video shared on Instagram.
An unexpected encounter
Rithu Rathee, a young Indian woman, was taking a routine walk through her residential society in Florida. During the stroll, she spotted something alarming: a cottonmouth snake, one of North America’s most venomous serpents, resting on the lawn. Soon, she spotted a second, stuck to a stone wall. “This other snake is trapped,” the woman said.The woman thought that the snake on the lawn was perhaps trying to rescue the one trapped in the wall. “This snake looks very dangerous. It’s the cottonmouth snake. If it bites someone, then death is certain,” she said. Cottonmouths are among the most venomous snakes in North America. Their bite is highly dangerous and may be fatal. The venom of the cottonmouth is haemotoxic.
How communities react
The woman said she wanted to rescue the trapped snake. She posted about the situation in her residential society’s group chat of 300–400 members; however, she was met with silence. “Only one replied to call animal control services, and they would take it,” the woman recalled. She tried calling, but no one answered. The indifference disturbed her. She said that if such a situation occurred in India, it would have generated immediate collective action, with neighbours coming together to devise a rescue plan. “There would have been a crowd taking care of it. They would have rescued it…” the woman said.“In Florida, it is a common thing. Snakes, alligators, turtles are seen everywhere,” she added. In the video, the woman can also be seen poking the trapped snake to check if it is alive, but she did not see any movement. The trapped snake was apparently dead.The video ends with a glimpse of the snake on the lawn eating the trapped one. Realising this, the woman said, “Oh, I thought that snake was trying to rescue it, but it ate the trapped one. And now, it is so fat that it can’t move.”The video has garnered nearly a million views on Instagram. Many warned her to be careful in such situations. The video is flooded with comments, as it resonated with netizens. It challenges viewers to consider how societies respond to vulnerability, especially in cases involving animals.
