A newly viral video showing U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. grabbing two writhing black snakes with his bare hands has reignited public discussion of the controversial cabinet member’s long track record of unusual, often bizarre encounters with wild animals.
Kennedy, who has long drawn backlash for his fringe, conspiracy-tinged views on public health issues including false claims that childhood vaccines are linked to autism and unsubstantiated warnings that fluoride added to public drinking water causes harm, has built a public reputation as an eccentric figure through his many offbeat animal-related antics.
The most recent incident, shared by Kennedy himself on the social platform X on Tuesday, shows the health secretary dressed in a formal dress shirt and tie, pulling two black racers from the corner of an outdoor patio by their tails and holding the squirming reptiles up for the camera with a smile. At one point in the footage, one of the snakes bites Kennedy, as an off-camera voice—identified in Kennedy’s caption as his wife, actress Cheryl Hines—pleads, “Bobby, Bobby, please.” Kennedy noted in his post that the snakes were removed from the patio of Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which falls under the Department of Health and Human Services that Kennedy leads.
The National Park Service confirms that black racers are non-venomous and pose no threat to humans if left undisturbed. But snake conservation experts have issued a sharp warning against copying Kennedy’s behavior, noting that untamed snakes will often bite when handled, and misidentification of venomous vs. non-venomous species can lead to life-threatening injury.
“What I don’t want is people copying him,” Cameron Young of the Center for Snake Conservation told Agence France-Presse. “If a kid picks up a venomous snake because RFK did, then the kid may receive a medically significant bite.”
This viral snake video is far from the first of Kennedy’s unusual animal adventures to make headlines. In 2024, Kennedy himself admitted in a video that a decade prior, he dragged a dead bear cub killed by a car upstate New York to Central Park in Manhattan, propping it next to a bicycle to stage the appearance that the animal had died in a cycling accident. The bizarre incident baffled New York City law enforcement for years, until Kennedy confessed to the prank.
Other stories shared by Kennedy and his family add to the eccentric image. According to an account from his daughter, Kennedy once used a chainsaw to sever the head of a dead whale that washed up on the coast of Massachusetts, then strapped the massive body part to the roof of the family minivan to transport it home for study of its skull. In an upcoming 2026 biography, Kennedy also recalled cutting the genitalia off a road-killed raccoon to preserve the specimen for later study.
In one notable incident that carried actual health risks, The New York Times once reported that a physician discovered a dead parasitic brain worm in Kennedy’s brain after he sought treatment for persistent memory loss. Kennedy has stated he made a full recovery with no long-term health effects from the infection.
Unlike many public figures who would face embarrassment over such a collection of unusual stories, Kennedy has never expressed shame or regret over his actions. Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse summed up public reaction to his unusual connection to wildlife in a sharp quip: “He has a relationship with animals that most of us only dream of. Nightmares are also dreams.”