Rattlesnake Roundup Season Starts Now!

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so the world's biggest rattlesnake roundup kicksoff today in Sweetwater, TX. it attracts up to 30,000 peeps throughout the weekend and brings in millions of dollars into the small town's economy where their slogan is "If you're bored here, it's your own fault." so yeah, these are very popular throughout our southern states even w/ declining rattlesnake populations. i've always been fascinated by these but being a herper, i don't think i could attend or support one. what do u think?

in this thread, imma post 2 opposing views via articles/news stories. first, stories that highlight the benefits of rattlesnake roundups. and second, an opposing view against it.

Yay! Rattlesnake Roundup

1) it's tradition
https://www.lubbockonline.com/news/2...-begins-friday

Annual Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater begins Friday
The world’s largest rattlesnake roundup held in Sweetwater each year begins Friday and goes through the weekend.

The three-day event includes guided hunts, a carnival, knife and coin shows, a cookoff, snake eating contest and many other awards and activities. Other notable awards are given to the person with the longest snake and the most pounds of snakes turned in.

A complete list of events can be found on the website, rattlesnakeroundup.net

The Rattlesnake Roundup is held at Sweetwater’s Nolan County Coliseum, located at 220 Coliseum Drive in Sweetwater. Daily passes are $10 for adults and $5 for any kids and active/retired military.

https://www.wacotrib.com/news/commun...c2d934722.html

Oglesby Rattlesnake Roundup kicks off 50th year

The Oglesby Lions Club kicked off its 50th annual Rattlesnake Roundup on Saturday as thousands of people descended on the Coryell County town for a day food, fun, car shows and an up close look at one of the deadliest snakes in Texas.

The event continues Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at the Oglesby Community Center, 118 Main. Ogelsby is just south of Highway 84, six miles west of McGregor. Admission is $5 per person, with children under 6 admitted free.

Event festivities include snakehandler Jackie Bibby, star of Animal Planet’s “Rattlesnake Republic.” Bibby and other snake handlers perform live demonstrations about every hour in the snake pit. They also offer information on what do upon encountering a rattlesnake in the wild.

The Oglesby Lions Club rattlesnake roundup started as a fundraiser 50 years ago, making it one of the oldest such events in Texas, along with one in Sweetwater. The event usually draws about 3,000 per weekend and raises thousands of dollars for vision services in local schools and a children’s camp in Kerrville.

“Fifty years ago we had an abundance of rattlesnakes around here,” said Charles Walter, longtime member of the Oglesby Lions Club. “We had people who would milk them for venom and use their skins for belts and billfolds.”

Though rattlesnakes are less plentiful now, hunters still catch snakes in the months before the roundup, looking under abandoned houses, under rocks and in crevices and storing them in boxes until the roundup, Walter said.

Event officials keep antivenom around for emergencies, and it is expected that at some time during the annual event it will be needed.

2) it can raise money for kids
https://www.kwtx.com/content/news/Wa...506612881.html

Walnut Springs: Rattlesnake Round-Up raises money for children

WALNUT SPRINGS, Texas (KWTX) The annual Rattlesnake Round-up event was held this weekend in Walnut Springs.

The event raises money that goes to Walnut Springs Business for Youth and agriculture organization that buys children's' animals at the livestock show.

This year the event included a carnival, food vendors, dances, and of course rattlesnakes.

3) it's used to collect venom
https://www.timesenterprise.com/news...a27d55fa4.html

Rattlesnake Roundup wants to tout its benefits

WHIGHAM — The Whigham Community Club wants the public to know the health and educational benefits of their annual Rattlesnake Roundup on Jan. 26.

Ken Darnell, who operates a venom production laboratory in Gordon, Alabama said there are numerous public benefits to the roundup of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes.

“(Snake venom) is used almost daily around the world in hundreds of places,” said Darnell, who will be attending the roundup to answer questions.

Darnell said major uses of snake venom include the scientific study of chemical enzymes and the development of antivenin and new drugs.

Part of why Darnell will be attending the event is to allay concerns from individuals who claim the roundup has little beneficial purpose and harms rattlesnake populations.

Last year the Center for Biological Diversity presented a petition with more than 44,000 signatures to the Community Club asking for the event to come to an end.

“The eastern diamondback continues to be pushed toward extinction by hunting pressure, habitat loss and road mortality,” the group said in a statement. “Scientific studies over the past decade have documented range-wide population declines and significant range contractions for the eastern diamondback.”

Darnell said populations of eastern diamondbacks are stable and that the impact of roundups such as Whigham’s are “minuscule and have good purpose.”

“If I thought for a minute that their activities were diminishing the population of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, which I care a lot about, I wouldn’t have worked with them from the beginning,” Darnell said. “But I know that’s not true.”

Darnell said he personally invited critics of the roundup to the event to answer their questions.

“(I even offered) to come to their meetings to explain to them why that’s not true,” Darnell said. “Well, they know it’s not true. They just like to parrot that fallacy.”

The eastern diamondbacks captured in the roundup are “milked” for their venom, which is primarily used to manufacture two types of antivenins available in the United States and Canada for at least the last 25 years.

Venom from the eastern diamondbacks, along with additional venoms from western diamondbacks, cottonmouths and Mojave rattlesnakes, gives the antivenins the ability to treat most pit viper bites.

Darnell said the vast majority of snakebites in the United States are pit viper bites.

The antivenin is formed by injecting sub-lethal amounts of the four venoms into host animals, often sheep.

To combat the venoms, the host animals produce antibodies that are extracted from the sheep’s blood.

The extracted antibodies are then purified and introduced into a patient to neutralize the effects of a venomous snake bite.

Darnell said venom produced by eastern diamondbacks also has been used to develop new drugs such as Integrilin, used to treat heart attacks and strokes.

The roundup will begin at 8 a.m. at the Rattlesnake Roundup Grounds in Whigham Saturday, Jan. 26.

4) it saved a small town and continues to do so (aka we were once overunned by rattlers, now it's our biggest economy)
https://www.lubbockonline.com/news/2...all-texas-town

Guest commentary: How rattlesnakes saved a small Texas town

(Editor’s Note: in the late 1950s, Western Diamondback rattlesnakes were overrunning Sweetwater, a small town of 11,000 residents in West Texas. Here’s how the search to overcome this hardship not only controlled the snake problem, but now brings in about $8.4 million annually.)

Back when Sweetwater was a cotton, oil and cattle town, rattlesnakes were dreaded by all. Rattlesnakes bit around 50 people yearly. Many ranchers and farmers lost costly livestock to these venomous snakes.

Today, this diminutive town demonstrates what happens when a community pulls together and faces reality rather than becomes immobilized by adversity.

Sixty years ago, ranchers banded together to brainstorm about controlling the western diamondback rattlesnake overpopulation. They created the idea of thinning down the rattlesnake population with an annual Rattlesnake Roundup.

That was back then, and the Rattlesnake Roundup hasn’t changed much over the years. It always had food, merchandise vendors and a carnival, but now the Nolan County Coliseum is bursting with “everything rattlesnake.”

The weekend Roundup festival hosts a rattlesnake cook-off and a “Miss Snake Charmer” contest in which the winner walks through a snake pit of hissing, angry snakes. Attendees can observe a contest for the longest beard, a knife, gun and coin show, and vendors who sell anything that can be adorned with snakeskin or rattles. Amidst hundreds of wriggly rattlesnakes in display pits, the Junior Chamber of Commerce teaches visitors about snake behavior, safety, and advice on managing unexpected snake encounters. Snakes rounded up in guided hunts are sent to the ‘Milking Pit,’ where visitors learn how venom is milked and sold for research. Visitors to the “Skinning Station” observe snakes being beheaded, skinned and sold. Nothing goes to waste here, with buyers interested in the meat, gall bladders, and skin.

Yet the Roundup is much, much more than festivities and the removal of potentially lethal rattlesnakes. The millions of dollars, and over 30,000 people who pour into Sweetwater in a single weekend in March each year has influenced a shift in the perspective of how the townspeople view rattlesnakes. Instead of viewing these deadly pit vipers solely as a feared menace, they understand that co-habitating with the rattlesnakes helps produce revenue for the community’s civic needs. Money generated from ticket sales goes to charitable events for the underprivileged, elderly, those who have fallen on hard times, and for leadership training.

Without the Rattlesnake Roundup, “people would suffer financially,” said Edward Gomez, chairman of the guided snake hunts. “For a lot of people a big chunk of their yearly income is made all in one weekend. It sustains our population. Others, like ranch hands who don’t have a terribly large yearly income will start catching rattlesnakes in December and bring in snakes to be sold at the roundup,” said Gomez.

Shared experiences with family, schoolmates and neighbors, along with information and advice passed down from parent to child, has instilled a community identity and pride in the residents. “There isn’t a lot to do here,” said Gomez. “People look forward to the Rattlesnake Roundup each year. Waiting around for the second weekend in March each year is like waiting for Christmas, it’s that much fun.”

The diamondback rattlesnakes continue to present a menacing threat to livestock and people. The same dens are hunted year after year, yet they continue to provide a never-ending supply of next-generation rattlesnakes. “This will continue to occur because after all,” as Karen Hunt, executive director of the Sweetwater Chamber of Commerce said, “the goal has always been population control, not eradication.”

This community has learned how to find the gift in living amidst a deadly threat. It derives comfort in knowing they are not alone when adversity strikes, and that they are fortunate to live in Sweetwater, Texas... snakes and all.