People Killing snakes

[Rob]

I know this is a BP forum but as snake keepers I feel it effects us all. Have you seen these videos of rattlesnake round up, or the show rattlesnake republic? I'm so disgusted with the way these animals are being tortured and killed for amusement. Yet PETA won't do a thing about it because snakes are not a fuzzy and cute. There is not excuse what so ever for the treatment of these snakes, they are not over populated they are not killing people in record numbers. It simply for entertainment and it's sick. Thoughts?

[Slim]

There was recently an article about rattle snake round ups in Reptile Magazine.

When I was stationed at Dyess AFB back in the mid-80's I attended the Sweetwater Rattle Snake Round Up one year. It was pretty bad.

[satomi325]

Yes I've seen it on youtube and on TV.
I hate how the rattlers have their mouths sewn shut with no anesthesia/pain killer to prevent them from biting. And I hate how they're put in a freezer to "calm them down". And after all that, people pose with them in photographs as if the snakes are trophies. Humans sicken me at times!

Although I wouldn't look to PETA for help. They kill more animals than they save.

[kyser/wrx]

Rattlers should be controled some way. I dont belive they should do it the way they are doing it but where i live in texas rattlers always end up in my back yard where my kids play sooo

[Anatopism]

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ht=rattlesnake

From ReptileChannel.com;
The Evans County Wildlife Club in Claxton, Georgia has decided to abandon its rattlesnake roundup in favor of a wildlife festival that will celebrate rattlesnakes instead of collecting and butchering them for their meat and skin, according to a press release put out by The Center for Biological Diversity. The group, along with Coastal Plains Institute, Protect All Living Species and One More Generation sent a letter of praise to the wildlife club for its decision to stop killing the snakes at its annual roundups.
The Evans County Wildlife Club will now hold the Claxton Rattlesnake and Wildlife Festival that will feature educational displays of the eastern diamondback rattlesnake and other wildlife native to the region. Held during the second weekend in March, the festival will feature educational programs, entertainment, and other activities for families.
"We're so happy the rattlesnake roundup in Claxton is being switched to a humane event that celebrates these great native animals and recognizes the importance of saving them," Collette Adkins Giese, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity said in a prepared statement. "The Whigham Community Club needs to follow suit -- it needs to recognize that massacres of endangered animals are just wrong, and clearly the wrong message to send to young people about our relationship to the natural world."
The groups sent a petition letter with more than 5,000 signatures to the Whigham Community club asking that club to stop its roundup.
The groups maintain that these roundups are significantly reducing the population of Eastern diamondback rattlesnakes (Crotalus adamanteus), and that analysis of data from four of these roundups show a steady decline in weight of captured animals as well as the number collected. In addition to hunting pressures, these snakes are declining due to habitat loss and death by motor vehicle on the state's roads, the groups said.
The eastern diamondback rattlesnake is a venomous snake with a range throughout the southeastern United States from southeastern North Carolina to Florida and the Florida Keys, southern Mississippi to Eastern Louisiana and Georgia. Its native habitat includes forests, swamps, woodlands, and prairies. It preys primarily on rabbits, rats, and other rodents as well as certain birds. It is the largest rattlesnake species and average 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 feet in length.

[Rob]

Rattlers should be controled some way. I dont belive they should do it the way they are doing it but where i live in texas rattlers always end up in my back yard where my kids play sooo

I lived in the great state of Texas for five years, and I only came across a rattler once out in the middle of no where, so I just left it alone and walked the other way. As far as them coming into your property and getting near your kids that's another story, I'm a father so I'm with you on that. What these people are doing is not getting rattlers from where they can harm people, they are going out and hunting them down in there holes far away from where they will do harm to people. Then making a show of chopping off there heads.

[Mike41793]

Rattlers should be controled some way. I dont belive they should do it the way they are doing it but where i live in texas rattlers always end up in my back yard where my kids play sooo

Without those rattler your yard would be full of vermin sooo i guess pick your poison...
I personally would like to start a stray cat roundup and kill a bunch of them and sell their fur as souveneirs...I dont like cats to begin with, let alone a crapload of stray ones everywhere!

[Trackstrong83]

I love snakes to death, I have been fascinated with them my entire life. What these people are doing is cruel, but I must admit I am forced to kill snakes every now and then but the reason being I live on a lake, and I have four dogs that run around in the back heard and swim in that lake everyday. I feel terrible doing it but I don't want my dogs to get bitten.

[snake lab]

Look i understand the argument but there are 2sides to this coin. As long as there is human population growth there is going to be the need to keep wildlife numbers in check. Now the way its done may be suspect but it needs to be done. Here in virginia i do alot of deer hunting on a few farms i have leases on. I have dmap permits which allows me to kill alot of deer. The dmap is a management tool to keep the population under control. Now 90%of the meat i take is donated to hunters for the hungry so it goes to a good cause. Rattlesnakes are over populating texas just like hogs are. They need to do something to keep numbers to a manageable number. Again im not agreeing with methods of dispatching these snakes but its a necessary evil. People move into snake country and public safety becomes a concern. Safety of livestock is also a concern. I hunt in texas and in some areas the hogs and the rattlers are way out of control. I hunted one ranch where if we didnt get the deer out before dark we werent allowed to go retrieve it till morning cause the snakes were that bad. You have to think about this subject with an open mind

[evan385]

I can't stand people who kill snakes. I don't care what reasons they have it disgusts me in any situation.