Beheaded rattlesnake sends man to hospital

This is a tough thing. I never want to see any snake killed and have removed more then a few rattle snakes from areas to close to people. I have found "farmers" more forgiving to rattlers then "ranchers". It is a tough thing to tell a man who makes his living on livestock to not kill them when he has a few dozen animals and more then one family dog killed or mutlated by them.

You can say killing them will not reduce their numbers but that is not the case it does reduce local populations. I know a guy in South Texas that kills all rattlers on site but picks up every bull, rat, king, etc snake he finds on the roads and lets em go on his ranch. His comment to me way, "Look Jack I ain't got nuthin against a snake, they are just doing what they are here to do. Yet I don't have the nerve to capture them and you would tell anyone who does not know how to handle them, including me, not to touch them right? (I answered yes) So I have over a dozen cattle bit a year, I have lost two dogs and one I loved almost as much as my kids. So when I see a rattler he gets dust shot, it ain't personal, I just have to make a living and protect my animals, my kids and my hired hands. Now if your around here and we see a snake and you want to catch it and take it away but are you going to drive 300 miles everytime we find one"?

Now that is hard to argue with, isn't it? The one thing I can say for this guy is they have the decency to eat rattlers when they kill one, he says "never let anything be killed for no reason if it does not have to be that way". Again this is hard to argue with.

I don't like it and indeed I would remove any rattler for him when visiting, (and I have) but day to day this man has a ranch to run and he will never kill all of the snakes, he and his people don't seek them out they just take out the ones that come aroud the bunk houses, pastures, etc. Honestly though I hate to see a snake killed, I can't look this man in the face and tell him he is wrong for what he does own his on land. Now of course he and his people are not stupid enough to play with dead snake heads!

He sounds like a cool guy.

His argument is unassailable. In his case, its a simple matter of incompatibilities. Actively, or passively, we all are responsible for some similar impact on wild-life.

Its cool that he catches non-venemous and brings them to his farm! Way to do things naturally.

I wonder if he could release some indigos around to control rattlensakes?

About the OP, it's called KHARMA.

Here is a news interview with Mr. Stupid,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdULbnYylUc

What ticks me off is the guy is playing with a bull snake in the interview and they never say that it is harmless. Most uninformed will assume that snake he is hold now is deadly or possibly the one that bit him even. :taz: Nice Huh!

Yeah, what an idiot. I saw that posted somewhere else, too. Thanks for clarifying what the actual snake was he is handling in the video. I'm sure everyone will think it's a diamondback! I hate the media!