Melissa
Kaplan's
Herp Care Collection
Last updated
January 1, 2014
Rattlesnake Roundups
Letter from Steve Grenard (HerpMed) to Bobby Horecka
March 27, 2000
by email
Snake venoms are being researched for treatment against pain. cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, high blood pressure and for numerous diagnostic purposes. Venom is a valuable and important commodity. And researchers often will obtain it from wherever they can. Including, undoubtedly, from roundups.
Witnesses at Rattlesnake Roundups indicate that the snakes are so badly treated, when they are "milked", blood is frequently witnessed contaminating the venom. The blood of these snakes contain proteins which inactivate or depotentiate their own venoms so that concoctions of venom containing the the snake's own blood could be classified as "self-neutralizing", thereby making it worthless for scientific research.
It is a reasonable idea that people who are milking these snakes at roundups and, ostensibly, selling the venom for medical research, are providing a service and to do otherwise is indeed a waste of good biological material that is very much in demand and quite expensive and even dangerous to otherwise produce or obtain. But by purporting to perform this service (for money or not which is irrelevant) unfortunately gives roundup supporters an altruistic reason to exist and perhaps the only valid reason they can come up with in their own support. On the other hand there are any number of professional firms, milking snakes under laboratory conditions, using long term captive snakes over and over, thus utilizing them as a renewable resource whereas roundup snakes are milked once and then killed. These professional firms are capable of producing a far superior product than is possible in a hastily established bench in a side show environment using roughly handled animals. Some of them are open to the public as an educational resource and "tourist attraction" such as the Serpentarium in St. Cloud, Florida.
LET THEM
EAT SNAKE!
Do tourists need to come to roundups and pay a premium
price so they can satisfy their longing for southern fried
Rattlesnake? There are far better, tastier, cleaner and
more nutritious meals that can be had at a lower cost
than rattlesnake meat. The argument that the snakes are
not wasted because they are eaten is basically non-sensical
and is more deserving of some starving pioneer or Indian
living in the wilderness a hundred or more years ago or
some tribe living in New Guinea than the present day U.S.
People who eat snake because they have to only kill what
they need and do not spend a week hunting down and frying
up hundreds of pounds of snake meat to feed the tourists
and make a quick buck.
TRANSLOCATING
SNAKES
This is difficult to police. Organizers of roundups
deny it but there is considerable evidence that this occurs.
This results in genetic co-mingling of different races
and even species or subspecies. The most dangerous result
of this practice could be production of snakes in an area
with different, more dangerous and even fatal venoms compared
to what would be normally expected in a bite from these
species. Such hybrids or intergrades are not easily recognizable
by appearance but genes control venom characteristics
and people who relocate snakes for some trivial purpose
such this risk playing a dangerous came with the potential
for extremely serious long term consequences.
RODENT CONTROL
Another important scientific reason to ban the killing
of rattlers is the fact that these rattlesnakes prey on
and control rodent populations. Diseases vectored by rodents
throughout history have killed many times more humans
than these snakes ever have or could. Although many factors
have been blamed on the western U.S. resurgence of rodent
vectored diseases such as Hanta Virus and even Bubonic
Plague, these incidents coincidentally have occurred just
over the past few decades and during record hauls by roundup
events. Therefore you cannot rule out upsetting the balance
between rodents and rodent predators as a cause for these
diseases ... which is clearly possible by the activities
of roundups.
REFORMING
OR TRANSFORMING ROUNDUPS
If the avowed interest of roundup organizers and
sponsors is so great and if they truly are concerned about
not putting themselves out of business, it is about time
that they consider reforming these events from Rattlesnake
Roundups to Rattlesnake Festivals with exhibits of captives,
educational lectures, even handling and milking exhibitions.
Some few sponsors even have setup permanent exhibits that
make money for them year round. Show visitors how rattlers
prey on disease carrying rodents. Tell them about all
the important new medical uses of venoms. setup a theatre
and get some videos to project on the big screen. Many
popular tourist attractions in Florida have been doing
this successfully for nearly 50 years without killing,
at least on purpose, a single snake and certainly not
by frying them up as a snack.
Steve
Grenard
Herpmed.com
Author, Medical Herpetology
Listowner, VENOM-L
Darnell-Related Articles and Correspondence
Rattler Roundup Strikes Again, Linda Kane, Lubbock Avalanch-Journal
Sweetwater’s rattlesnake roundup has serious side, Bobby Horecka, Abeline Reporter News
Letter from Steve Grenard to Bobby Horecka, March 27, 2000
Roundup and Rattlesnake Related Articles and Sites
Rattlesnake Roundups Revisited
ABC Bites On Rattlesnake Roundups
