Eric brings up several good points, as have many others. The biggest thing is hypocrisy. There are several people on here that are quick to cast stones. While the Animal Planet show did depict most rattlesnake hunters as "hillbillies" or "rednecks", I do not think that Eric or Ricky came off like that at all. Unfortunately, we tend to stereotype a group of people because of the actions of some. The same thing has happened to alterna collectors. A few people that do things like trespass, make illegal u-turns in front of on coming cars, shine lights in peoples eyes, etc. have given us a bad name and has caused us as a whole a lot of unwarranted harassment.
I do not agree with a lot of the things that go on with the roundups, and I have been to a lot of them. I do know that if everyone used the same collection methods as Eric does, then the roundup would have almost no impact on the rattlesnake population. The biggest problem that I have is that TP&W tends to turn a blind eye to some of the collection techniques that are extremely harmful (like gassing). Aaron spoke of sustainable harvest. This is exactly what needs to be stressed here. If you have ever been rattlesnake collecting (the proper way), you know that it would be very difficult to catch every snake at a den site. As long as people are collecting using legal methods, the rattlesnake population should be fine. I live in area where rattlesnake hunting is very popular and while I have seen a little bit of a decline in population in some areas, the overall population seems to be doing just fine.
Finally, Joe hit the nail on the head with his statement about money. These small communities need the money that the roundups generate. It is a big deal in those communities. It is easy to call them all rednecks because the are from small communities, but many of these "rednecks" take care of the land and habitat much better than our more "sophisticated" people that live in cities. Remember, the greatest danger for any animal is habitat destruction. I don't think that atrox are doing very well inside Dallas or Fort Worth city limits.

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