This sultry snake charmer looked bootiful enough to charm the snakeskin shoes and accessories right off folks outside a Washington, D.C., metro station and convince them to scale up their fashion sense with faux skins.

Since the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority rejected our offer to wrap rubber snakes around subway car poles to convince people who don't like snakes to shed exotic skins, we charmed our way into metro stations across the country for the sake of snakes.

At least one patron got all rattled by the display.

Are you ready for (cue ominous music) … Snakes on a Train?

No, it's not the sequel to that (in)famous Samuel L. Jackson film—although it is the title of a straight-to-video rip-off. In this case, it's a new PETA campaign that is sure to get some attention for reptiles killed for their skins.

What Are Your Hands Holding?

PETA is asking the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) for permission to launch its new "Snakes on a Train" campaign on the T, featuring realistic-looking rubber snakes wrapped around subway poles and handles, as well as a slogan on the windows that reads, "Snakes Make Your Skin Crawl? Shed All Scaly Belts and Bags! Watch Video at PETA.org":

Snakes: (c) iStockphoto.com/Eric Isslee - Train:(c) DDholer

PETA hopes to scare commuters out of their snakeskin boots, shoes, purses, and belts. In order to make snakeskin accessories, these reptiles are nailed to trees or posts and skinned alive. Their mutilated bodies are discarded, and it sometimes takes hours for them to die.

How You Can Help Snakes

If you wouldn't want to hold on to a snake during your commute, why would you want to have their dead flesh wrapped around your waist, feet, or personal belongings? Let's shed exotic skins for good.

We recently shared the good news that no reptiles were harmed in the making of the new movie Rango, starring reptile friend Johnny Depp, but Paramount Pictures, the distributer of the movie, has partnered with PetSmart in a terribly irresponsible promotion of impulse buying, offering a $10 discount on any reptile to customers with Rango ticket stubs. Neither PetSmart nor Paramount has responded to PETA's polite pleas to put an end to this ill-conceived, cruel promotion.

We want to love this movie and its positive message, but this promotion will inevitably lead to the suffering and deaths of animals. This movie is being marketed to children, who may be intrigued by possessing a reptile but who are far from equipped to humanely care for one. Reptiles—especially chameleons, who are terribly hard to keep alive in captivity—are anything but low maintenance. Any animal acquired on a whim (prompted by a coupon, no less!) is in danger of being discarded within days once the "wow" factor fades and the animal's specialized needs become clear. Snakes, iguanas, and other animals who have become "inconvenient" are often dumped outside like garbage. Many of these abandoned animals languish in fear, hunger, and thirst before dying or being killed. Those who survive can wreak havoc on local ecosystems.

Please ask Paramount to stop this reckless promotion so that you can buy a ticket in good conscience.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

Fancy a bout of the runs, severe fever, septicemia, or perhaps meningitis? Then head on out and get yourself a snake or other reptile as a pet. According to a recent report, hundreds of people were exposed to salmonella bacteria from dead mice they were feeding to their reptiles—but that's just the tip of the iceberg. For years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been sounding the alarm about contact with reptiles because every year tens of thousands of people in the U.S. contract salmonellosis—a serious bug that can land you in the hospital … or worse—as a result of direct or indirect contact with reptiles. In the last year, there have been two other reptile-related salmonella outbreaks, one tied to the sale of pet turtles and the other to the sale of African dwarf frogs.

Should pet stores give away a free hospital stay with each reptile they sell? You tell us. Meanwhile, please help stop the wobbly stomach blues (not to mention the blues that every snake and lizard who's stuck in an aquarium must experience) by adding your support to the proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ban the sale of nine species of snake.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

It's spring! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the dueling robins I saw on my way to work this morning are a sign that it's mating season. With animals across the country looking for love, a $150,000 grant awarded by the Vermont Agency of Transportation's Transportation Enhancements Grant Committee (TEGC) couldn't have come at a better time. The Monkton Conservation Commission in Vermont plans to use the grant to install a "salamander crossing" under Monkton's Vergennes Road, which the state's leading reptile and amphibian expert describes as "one of the most important of the known amphibian crossings in the state." This passage will offer amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals a safe way to travel between uplands southeast of the road and an important swamp northwest of the crossing—by helping them avoid the dangers that claim the lives of millions of animals who become roadkill every year in the U.S. For recognizing that all animals deserve consideration and protection, PETA is giving the Vermont Agency of Transportation a Compassionate Action Award.

With "ecopassages" (both under and above roads) popping up all over the country—including Massachusetts' salamander tunnels and California's cougar corridors—animals everywhere are having an easier time traveling, getting food, and mating. Have you spotted any ecopassages in your community?

Written by Logan Scherer