Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, on Tuesday added to his lengthening catalog of bizarre wild animal encounters by posting to social media a video of himself in Florida wrestling with two snakes.
Kennedy, who has previously admitted dumping the carcass of a bear cub in New York’s Central Park, and is also alleged to have cut the penis off a road-kill raccoon, is seen grabbing the pair of serpents with his bare hands.
His wife, Cheryl Hines, is heard urging her husband to be careful as Kennedy shows them off to the camera, then recoils as one rears up and appears to bite his hand.
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“Cheryl cheerleads the removal of a pair of Black Racers from Dr Oz’s patio,” the post states. It refers to both the species of snake, and where the video was captured, believed to be the Palm Beach waterfront mansion belonging to Mehmet Oz, the controversial celebrity medic now serving as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Non-venomous southern black racers are the most common species of snake in Florida, and are known for their speed and agility. They are harmless to humans.
It is not clear when the 49-second recording was made, or what happened to the snakes.
A voice that sounds like Oz surmises the snakes were having sex, then queries if they were fighting. Kennedy, in a blue shirt and tie, laughs as he handles the pair together, well back from their heads, in his right hand, then veers back in apparent pain as one of the snakes rises up and strikes his left.
“You’re nuts,” a female voice says.
Kennedy’s prior dealings with the animal kingdom have become a rich source of curiosity and controversy. An article last month in the Week lists six separate encounters, including a 2014 episode in which he admitted to finding a dead bear cub on a road trip and putting it in his van with a plan to skin it and eat it later.
He said he dumped the animal in Manhattan’s Central Park when he ran out of time before a flight, and placed a bicycle on top of it in the hope of framing a cyclist.
Last month, in an equally outlandish story, it emerged from the newly published biography RFK Jr: The Fall and Rise that he had mutilated the carcass of a raccoon he found dead on a New York highway in 2001.
“I was standing in front of my parked car on I-684 cutting the penis out of a road-killed raccoon, thinking about how weird some of my family members have turned out to be,” he wrote in his journal at the time, according to the book’s author, Isabel Vincent.
The book also alludes to Kennedy’s alleged fascination with seagulls and desire to add to his collection of skulls of deceased birds.
Perhaps the most extreme example, however, was the 2024 recounting of an undated incident in which Kennedy allegedly severed the head of a washed-up whale with a chainsaw, then drove home with it strapped to his car’s roof.
Other alarming claims include one that part of Kennedy’s brain was eaten by a worm, and another that he enjoyed eating barbecued dog.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A source close to Kennedy, however, said he was “doing just fine”.