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The U.S. Marines snap photos as they huddle around a dead king cobra — one of the fiercest venomous snakes they might encounter in the jungle. Then they cheer one another on as the instructor holds the reptile above their mouths, spilling its blood onto their tongues.

“It was oddly sweet — didn’t taste like blood,” one Marine said after drinking cobra blood in 2019.

That was after the Marines ate tarantulas, scorpions and bugs during the annual exercise as Thai troops shared tips for surviving deep in the jungle. The exercise has been happening every year for about four decades, and Marines often document the training with their cellphones and GoPro cameras.

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But not everyone finds the rituals to be entertaining. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals submitted a formal complaint on Thursday to the Navy Department’s top watchdog not only calling on him to ban the use of animals in the exercise, but to punish those refusing to comply.

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“The Marine Corps’ reputation takes a hit every time someone shows a photo of a Marine sucking down cobra blood,” Ingrid Taylor, a PETA veterinarian, said in a Thursday statement, which called on the service branch to “end the use of animals in this gruesome frat party-like event and reprimand any senior officer who orders Marines to throw decency aside in favor of bloodlust.”

The complaint escalates the group’s calls to halt the use of live animals in the exercise. Last year, PETA wrote letters to top Marine Corps Gen. David Berger and then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

But military videos show Marines still drank snake blood and ate jungle creatures in the 2020 exercise. Now the inspector’s general office will have to review PETA’s complaint and determine whether to investigate it.

“Participation in unnecessary acts of cruelty to animals betrays [Marine Corps] values,” the complaint states.

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The Marine Corps officials did not respond to a request for comment. The service is undergoing a massive shift away from decades of ground-operations in the Middle East toward naval-based missions focused on deterring China, which defense leaders say is the U.S. military’s top competitor.

The Thailand-based jungle exercise, known as Cobra Gold, runs every spring for about two weeks. It’s designed to allow U.S. and local troops to share tactics and skills that could prove useful in a fight against a common enemy.

For Thai marines, that means teaching U.S. troops how to survive in the jungle.

“The reason we drink cobra’s blood is we’re searching for water,” Thai Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Phairoj Prasansai, said of the training in 2019. “Thailand has tropical forests, but finding water in the jungle is hard."

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“We don’t do this for fun,” he added, “but to survive.”

PETA goes as far in its complaint as to suggest that Marines drinking snake blood violates military law. The group argues that animal cruelty could be punishable under the military justice system because it brings “discredit upon the armed forces.”

But Gary Solis, a retired Marine judge advocate, said there is no written or verbal order prohibiting Marines from drinking snake blood. That means the ritual would not be considered a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s article on disobeying lawful orders.

“No," Solis said, “drinking snake blood is not contrary to military law.”

PETA says Marines need to turn to plant-based food sources in the jungle instead of relying on live scorpions and cobra blood, which the group says casts the Marines “in a light suffused with … barbarism.”

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“The availability of alternatives that don’t involve smearing cobra blood across Marines’ faces reinforces the idea that killing these animals involves unnecessary bravado that doesn’t equip troops with actual survival skills,” the complaint states.

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