Quote Originally Posted by mainbutter View Post
most of your snake skin products are either produced domestically from rattlesnakes or internationally from retics, both from wild caught animals.
I did a report on Rattlesnake Roundups and what an environmental nightmare they are and learned a great deal about this. Most rattlesnakes become belts and wallets, sometimes boots. Python leather (that is what they call it) is often used for larger handbags because it's a larger snake. But the snakes are not caught individually and killed on the spot. In Rattlesnake Roundups, they are collected in mass piles where they sit for days of even weeks. Smaller ones are crushed under the weight of the larger ones, they are taunted, milked for venom, which is only an act to legitimize the event, the venom is not collected sterile and is therefore medically worthless, and then stressed and dehydrated, they are killed. And yes, then they are eaten and the skin is used. My problem is the horrifying nature of the collection and the animal cruelty leading up to the slaughter, and the fact that the practice has a hugely negative impact on the environment.

I do not believe in harvesting animals from the wild for any mass consumption. I am for the responsible farming of domestic livestock. But I DO believe in private hunting. The hunters I know personally are very responsible and when they kill a deer, they do everything with it that you can do with beef, and because they found it, killed it, cleaned it, and cooked it themselves, they actually have a far greater appreciation for the life of the animal. Buying pre-cut chicken breast in a neat little package removes us from that mindset. Out of sight, out of mind. We are not asked to care how it lived or died.

I feel the same mindset exists in people who pay $600 for a python leather handbag. Upon seeing the print and the price tag, the first thing I though of was how was this animal treated before it was killed, and how was it killed, and what happend to the rest of it? The people who actually buy the product think only of the prestige and being able to proudly answer "yes it is" when asked it it's real.