Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This weekend is the largest rattlesnake round-up in Texas. The way the snakes are treated before they are slaughtered for public entertainment is sickening. I'd been posting on the Jaycees website all day, leaving polite messages about alternatives, such as the way Georgia turned their round ups into wildlife festivals (though it took the near decimation of the Eastern Diamondback population in Georgia for this to happen).

I've now been blocked from posting or commenting on the page.

The Jaycees claim that the venom collected is used for antivenom but the snakes are kept in such horrible conditions that no hospital would accept that venom. This year, they had to up the bounty on the rattlesnakes from $3.00 a pound to $10.00 a pound because it was so hard for them to find enough snakes to slaughter this year.

If you find this practice as abhorrent as I do, please consider posting POLITELY on the Jaycee FB page, the link is

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweetwater-Jaycees-Rattlesnake-Round-Up/253049219648

Thank you,

ReallySusan

It's pretty discouraging that Texas allows this act of cruelty and turns a blind eye to the illegal acts associated with destroying the environment that we live in.

It would be nice if the participants were held to the same regulations as we herpers are. I know for a fact, that they are not following the same regs as required.

I.E..Hunting License, Herp Stamp, Non-Game collecting permit, and so on.

Check out Hantaviris statistics in Texas and you'll see it's most prevelant in the Sweetwater area! Gee, what a surprise!
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Tim Cole
www.austinherpsociety.org
www.AustinReptileExpo.com/
www.AustinReptileService.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<
Conservation through Education

>>Check out Hantaviris statistics in Texas and you'll see it's most prevelant in the Sweetwater area! Gee, what a surprise!
>>-----
>>Tim Cole

Hey Tim!

Got any links to the hantavirus stats? I would SOOOOO love to see that!
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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Tim, your facts are WRONG. The state of Texas does require them to follow the same rules you are required to follow. They had TPWD wardens at the round-up every day and were checking for appropriate licences and permits.

ECTimaeus

ReallySusan, evidently you do not have your facts right or you choose to think that simply stating something makes it fact. In fact the price of the snakes went up because the market price went up and the buyers were paying more. As far as hospitals getting the venom, hospitals do not get the venom because it goes to labs. We are only hearing your side of why you were blocked from their website. More than likely it is because you went too far with you environmentalist comments. I suspect that the same thing could happen with this forum.

ECT

Bottom line is it's inhumane, and when the snakes are all gone, they're all gone! They DO have a necessary place in the environment! I also wonder about the actual proper collection and processing of the venom, Or is it all just for show? This is NOT scientific or educational, IMHO! Final word...we sure wouldn't be having this debate if warm, furry mutt puppies were involved!

Bottom line - is this really any less humane than picking up stray puppies or kitties and euthanizing (suffocating slowly)them and thorwing them in the land fill? Or is it any less humane than how industries kill the beef, pork, chickens, fish, or seafoods that you eat? There are groups of people out there that do not want you to eat meat or wear leather clothing. It still happens. The snakes are used the same ways that the other animals are used. One might go on to say it is inhumane for you to keep a snake or other Herp in a cage for it's whole life, all the while tormenting it by handling it and allowing it to peer out of it's cage at freedom and never being allowed to escape. Where do YOU really want to draw the line?

ECT

Not an expert on western roundups but In the states where the Eastern inhabits the only means of capture for these snakes is 1.Gas a burrow or stumphole. Burrows often gassed are Gopher Tortoise. The affects this has on all wildlife using the burrow is not measurable. 300 species share these burrows. Including several endangered. 2.Find a burrow or stumphole and use snatch hooks or ammonia instead of illegal gassing technique. The roundups arent the #1 killer, fragmentation is. The EDB is currently under review to be included in Endangered Species Act and rightfully so. The Roundups are inhumane and encourage ignorant points of view...a see and kill....bounty mentality. There are 2 types of people out there..those who care less because they dont know any better..and those that look to the past and do whatever they can to make the same mistakes again. There is no way anyone can say that the roundups are necessary. Someone is making money off of others fears and misunderstanings at the expense of wildlife. There is nothing I can say to convince someone that supports these slaughters...ignorance is a [bleep]...

folks the ist thing you have to know is its a half a million dollars to the city of sweetwater i been goind since i was a kid im in my 60s now every few years it seems someone try to ban the round up . i know for a fact that there been over 45 attempts and still it goes on .the state in the last few years has started checking the hunter for permits you think they do that to protect the snakes. if so ive got a lot of desert land i can let you have ,.they just want to be sure they get there money. the only way to stop this round up is to make it illegal to hunt them from oct to march if they cant be hunted in there dens then the roundup will just die a natural death

I did not know that puppies and kittens where slowly tortured during euthanasia or that slaughterhouses used systematic means to abuse animals. What I do suspect is that these roundups are more akin to dog fights, cock fights, and bull fights in the spectacle that is provided. These examples are usually considered to be over the line.

Try calling local "humane" shelters and asking them what they do with unwanted kittens or puppies. If they will tell you, you will find out that they euthanize them. Some with Carbon Monoxide, some with CO2, others use poisonous gas or needle injections. As far as slaughter houses are concerned, how did you think they did it without hurting the animals????

I have never seen at any round-up anything like cock fighting, pit bull fights, or bull fights. The animals do not fight.

Bulls don't fight each other in a bullfight either. The point is that they are all forms of using animals cruelly for the entertainment of people.
I believe animal shelters try to euthanize animals as painlessly as possible. Never been to a slaughterhouse, but killing can be done without pain.

Texas has been and will continue to be the state anyone can come to and slaughter as many animals as you can afford to kill. Pick a snake up off the road even to just move it to safety and you are a criminal in The Great State of Texas. In addition, the law in Texas allows for animals on the road to be "rescued". I found this out when talking to Meagan in Austin, but if a game warden sees you pick up the animal - they will cite you on the spot. The difficulty with this is that while Austin tells you this is legal without and permit, you cannot supeona anyone from Austin to testify on your behalf due to the distance. So you are left with local wardens making up the laws as they see fit and at the mercy of either a judge or jury not knowing enough to make a rational decision on your guilt or innocence.