Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Rattlesnake Roundups: End the Abuse


           There’s a practice in the Southern and Southwest U.S. where people bring in an insane amount of rattlesnakes, which are then killed for their skin and meat. Certain species of rattlesnakes are very affected such as the eastern diamondback. Their numbers are getting cut drastically. Rattlesnake Roundups must go away.
            Why are some towns doing this? Well some towns hold roundup festivals to generate revenue.  Others are doing this because they are scared of rattlesnakes.  They believe that roundups are okay to keep rattlesnake populations in check, which is false.  Also, some hunters claim they are doing this to collect venom to help with medical research, which is also not true because the way they kill the snakes is very unsanitary and unusable to medical companies.
            Roundup organizers also harm other animals when collecting rattlesnakes. They pour gasoline into tortoise burrows, harming many organisms that also live in these burrows. So hopefully we can all agree that rattlesnake roundups are terrible. What can we do to fix this?


            Well education is very important. Many mad myths about rattlesnakes including being a serious danger to humans is one of the reasons why so many rattlesnakes are skinned and slaughtered. Also, some organizations such as the Center for Biological Diversity is using education and asking state governments to change their policies. Also, the Center for Biological Diversity is encouraging towns that do roundups to a wildlife festival instead and just display the animals to show people that these animals are not killers.  These towns have also generated more revenue from becoming wildlife displays rather than killing the snakes.

            There are still many things that need to be done to protect the rattlesnakes.  Roundups are still occurring and hosted in certain parts of the United States. Hopefully, with more education and action, we will see less of roudnups and an eventual end to the cruel treatments of rattlesnakes.

Sources:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/outlawing_rattlesnake_roundups/
https://www.rattlesnakeroundups.com
Google was used for images

2 comments:

Herpetology Class said...

Actual wildlife festivals have replaced rattlesnake roundups in some areas - I hope this positive trend will continue.

Anonymous said...

I think continuing traditions while adjusting them to be more humane and less problematic is a very important action in promoting conservation action. By slightly altering these roundups to celebrate instead of demonize rattlesnakes, we can preserve traditions while also preserving species.