The Backyard Zoo

by Jim Dunlap

"Rattlesnake Roundup"

Following certain events of last week here in Texas as well as other states, I am prompted, nay, obligated to get up on my soapbox, reinforced due to my recent weight gain, and lay into the scourge of misinformation. I'll just say that this is in defense of the rattlesnake.

First of all it was on television, so it must be true. The statement, out of the mouths of those people Jeff Foxworthy makes a comfortable living from was, "The venom extracted from rattlesnakes during the 'milking contest' is used for scientific research." The snake is forced to sink fangs into a rubber kitchen glove stretched over a long-stemmed champagne glass (the better to see the deadly amber drops with my dear!). If all aseptic practices are not used in the extraction, the venom it is contaminated and therefore useless.

The misinformation continued throughout the television segment. For every myth there is a fact, so here are some one-sentence facts about these well-advertised, festive, family events, you will not see in the "Fun Weekend" hype. Roundups (oops!) do nothing to prevent snakebites, they cause them and you will find that more people are bitten at roundups than anywhere else. Killing off the rattlesnakes cost the farmer and rancher because the snakes control the rodent population and actually save them money. The money raised "for charity" at these roundups hardly ever benefits these charities because they get only leftover revenues. It is not safe to eat rattlesnake meat because the hunters use gasoline fumes to drive out the snakes and it is absorbed into their bodies. Roundup methods kill innocent animals because rabbits, foxes, tortoises, ground squirrels, skunks, burrowing owls, frogs, toads and many other animals live in rattlesnake dens, and cannot survive being sprayed with gasoline. That same gasoline pollutes the ground water. Some of the snakes that survive the mechanical pneumonia caused by the gas fumes, and survive the "Roundups" themselves, are slaughtered for hides; the rest become stock for the next year. To assure a sufficient number of snakes for the show, many are collected from other areas and even other states and stored in flat, wooden boxes with poor ventilation and usually with no food or water. Many die in those boxes and if the truth be told, that fried rattlesnake meat you eat.......fill in the blank.

The box is beginning to sag so all I can say is, "Do Not Attend Rattlesnake Roundups."

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