SHERMAN DENISON HERALD DEMOCRAT (Texas) 30 April 07 Rattlesnake handlers from Texas and Oklahoma show the snakes who’s boss (Ken Studer)
Other than our creepy crawly eight-legged friends, little frightens the average person more than a poisonous snake, especially a rattlesnake. To the outdoorsy person or experienced hunter, chances are sooner or later a snake will cross their path and if they hunt or spend time in the outdoors in this area they will run across one or more southern snakes. One such slithering playmate will probably be a rattlesnake, and with any luck it will be a diamondback.
Living in Kentucky, this writer spent some time with snakes, but was always fascinated with the rattlesnake. A three-hour drive used to put me at the Smokey Mountains and all the rattlesnakes I needed to photograph.
Since the move to Texas, the rattlesnake photography is all but over. One of the advantages of living so close to Oklahoma is the opportunity to attend one of the rattlesnake hunts they’re famous for.
The rattlesnake hunt turned out to be a big fund raiser for the volunteer fire department. The town was set up like a carnival of some kind with snakes as the main theme. Rattlesnakes were being placed around children who wanted to have their picture taken in that way. I found out later that the snake had been de-fanged and that it would die in a matter of hours.
This wasn’t the way to start the day for me.
The center row of the downtown area was set up with aquarium type enclosures filled with rattlesnakes. In a conversation with a snake handler, I was informed that three people had been bitten by the rattlesnakes and the event was only one day old.
I located the handler that was bitten, Mike Darrow, and he gave me the story of how being bitten two times in 28 years of handling snakes is doing pretty good. He was tagged in the palm of his hand, but he showed how he could start to bend his fingers which was an improvement. He demonstrated an extracting device that he used on himself the instant he was bitten, which he said removed a large portion of the venom.
“This is something (the extractor) that anyone in this area that loves the outdoors should carry with them, in case they are bitten by a rattlesnake. Don’t ever try what you see on the westerns on television, when they cut the bite and suck the poison out. First of all, if someone has a cut in their mouth or cracked lips, the poison can enter their body. These things make for good television, but is not what should be done in this instance,” said Darrow.
The handlers from the Texas Diamond Hunters invited me to the next show at the festival, where I saw these experts handle more than a hundred rattlesnakes. One big fear while camping is what to do if a snake crawls into the sleeping bag. Mike Sheridan, another handler with Texas Diamond Hunters, not only enjoys that situation, but lies inside a sleeping bag while 25 diamondback rattlesnakes are put inside with him. Then, his buddies shake up the bag and turn it over pouring the snakes all over him.
The handlers explained that rattlesnakes will only strike when they are threatened or hunting food. The way they handled the snakes in and outside the sleeping bag, it made a believer of me. Watching them kiss the snake was a little nerve-racking, but everyone came out unharmed.
The food booths at the festival covered most of the essentials such as hamburgers, nachos and barbecue, but they also had deep fried rattlesnake. I had to try some, but trying to get some meat from around the ribs is more work than it’s worth. The little I did get, verified that it does indeed taste like chicken.
The rattlesnake fixation is over for me now and I have some good photos to enjoy, so I’ll move on to something a little less deadly now.
Rattlesnake handlers from Texas and Oklahoma show the snakes who’s boss

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