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ODESSA AMERICAN (Texas) 26 March 04 Snake handler educates about viper safety (David J. Lee)
Midland: A Fort Worth snake handler extolled the virtues and pitfalls of rattlesnakes Thursday as about a dozen of the vipers’ tails sizzled behind him.
About 40 people sat in the Petroleum Museum as Monty Stallcop began his presentation as part of the Petroleum Museum’s lunch and lecture series.
As the group ate, some nervously laughed and told jokes to calm nerves as about 16 of the snakes sat in ventilated cases at the front of the room.
“Who left the bacon on the stove?” one woman teased about the continuous sound of the rattlers’ tails.
Others were much more interested in reptiles, though.
Rebecca Greenfield brought her children, Micah, 8, Marissa, 7, and Joshua, 2, and her niece, Abigail Smith, 9, to check out the snakes.
The three girls and boy ran straight to the cases containing the deadly vipers.
“I think it’s cool — the tails are really cool,” said Marissa. “We’ve been studying snakes.”
Rebecca Greenfield said she homeschools the children, and they just finished a unit on reptiles.
“We thought it would be interesting to see the rattlesnakes,” she said.
As the children pointed and asked questions while they were close to the snakes, Rebecca Greenfield sat a table some distance away.
“They’re braver than I am,” she said. “They’re always open to new stuff.”
Stallcop, who owns MiMoJo Productions in Fort Worth, is a professional snake handler.
“This lecture is important for you to learn how to avoid a close encounter with a snake or what to do if you have a close encounter with a snake,” he said.
And to avoid poisonous snakebites, Stallcop said the technique is simple.
“Follow one simple rule — it doesn’t take a rocket scientist,” he said. “Don’t put your hands or feet where you cannot see.”
Stallcop also talked about the different kinds of poisonous snakes in the area and dispelled some myths about snakes.
“Any snake can climb a tree, swim and bite under water,” he said.
Stallcop recommended the purchase of an extractor to help suck venom from a poisonous bite, which he’s used when bitten.
He also recommended standing still when a snake comes across the path.
“I know it goes against every instinct you have,” he said. “You want to run or jump away, but you can’t.”
As an example of what can happen with snakebites, he showed photographs of an venomous bite he received several years ago.
“It only takes a snake one-tenth of one second to bite you,” he said. “When that snake bit me, I was staring at its head. It was on the ground. It bit me and I felt it, but I never saw its head move.”
He said it took six weeks for the hand to heal enough to not look bad, and it was six months before he could make a fist. The hand still has some partial crippling.
“I’ve had a heart attack, open heart surgery, pinched nerves, broken bones, I’ve been in car wrecks, and I’ve even been shot,” he said. “All that together didn’t hurt like this did — not even close.”
Stallcop said to think of that when tempted to run from a snake.
“Stand still. As long as you’re still, you’re not a threat. I know it’s instinct to run, but think about this when you want to run,” he said, showing his hand.
Snake handler educates about viper safety

This yahoo is a rattlesnake roundup clown who chops off snakes' heads and sells them on his website. Here's to hoping he gets bitten a few more times for his efforts.

I live in a state that still supports the butcher of rattlesnakes every year...New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment...well, for everyone but the snakes at least...

AP

I think it would be more acceptable to wish a horrible
cow tipping accident on him.

It might save some poor little ol' atrox from catching a diease
after biting that guy.
Ryan,

As a member of this board I was under the impression that the members who post questions were adults! I was totally shocked to see a member post a note wishing for disaster to strike a valued member of this community. A bite can be a terrible thing to whitness or to endure. I request that postings be more adult and not politically or emotionally generated. Whatever your agenda is, the collective does not care about your personal feelings, but to hear your love for our community of adults who love the challenge of the study and harvesting of Venomous Snakes for the benefit of all society.
Over the years I have seen the benefit of rattlesnake roundups and the commericalization of their collective parts. Rattlesnakes are the only snakes that are harvested and almost 100% of their totallity is consummed to benefit mankind, i.e. the venom is used to create medicines to treat MS and many other of neuro-muscular diseases, the meat is sold for food (fried rattlesnake is a delicacy worldwide), the organs are sold to the Asian world as food and medicine items as well.

>>Over the years I have seen the benefit of rattlesnake roundups and the commericalization of their collective parts. Rattlesnakes are the only snakes that are harvested and almost 100% of their totallity is consummed to benefit mankind, i.e. the venom is used to create medicines to treat MS and many other of neuro-muscular diseases, the meat is sold for food (fried rattlesnake is a delicacy worldwide), the organs are sold to the Asian world as food and medicine items as well.

The venom is used to make medicine eh? I suppose you believe they use it to make AV and all that. Have you seen the venom being collected before? Do the conditions look like sterile laboratory conditions to you, or rather a bunch of rednecks milking lots of different snakes (and often different species) into the same container? I've heard over and over again the latter answer. Venom is a protein, and degrades quickly when exposed to air. Roundups are open air situations, often even outside events, which do not offer sterility nor do they usually distinguish between species, much less locales. As for the commercialization of their parts to 'benefit' mankind, that's rediculous. I don't even have to point out the obvious erroneousness of that statement to you.
-Chance

I see that you have apparently bought into the myths propagated by rattlesnake roundups to excuse their horrendous cruelty and greedy commercialism. Biologists have refuted these stories a long time ago. Venom from roundups is close to commercially useless due to lack of proper species identification and contamination of the sample. C. atrox venom is not a particularly valuable venom even when it is properly extracted under laboratory conditions. A sample that is contaminated with blood and dust and degraded by high temperatures and maybe isn't even pure atrox is worth almost nothing and cannot be used for most applications. There are a few things it can still be used for, but they aren't in medical research which demands considerably more purity.

Roundups are devastating to local ecosystems in many many ways, and the only value they have to the community is raising money for charities with animal cruelty and a public spectacle of animal abuse. I do not think that is a healthy message to send to children and families. Money for charities should be raised in ways that do not involve torturing animals under extremely inhumane conditions for sport.

I don't think that selling rattlesnake skin underwear and dead baby rattlesnakes makes someone a "valued member of the community". Quite to the contrary. The person you are talking about is a rattlesnake roundup butcher whose "education" programs contain more self serving propaganda and foolish showmanship than scientific fact.

A hint - don't come here and try to justify rattlesnake roundups. It's the wrong place.

***A hint--don't come here and try to justify rattlesnake roundups. It's the wrong place.***

A word to the wise, bentx214.