Rattlesnake Roundups

Roundups are carnival-like events still staged in many parts of the country. For many years, San Antonio, a small town near Dade City in Pasco County, has been the site of Florida's annual rattlesnake roundup. In the 1950s and early 60s, events at the roundup included prizes for the largest, smallest and heaviest rattlers, the pitting of rattlesnakes against kingsnakes, sale of rattlensnake meat, and Gopher Tortoise races. One colorful character with a well-concealed wooden leg would show up every year and walk "dangerously" close to big rattlers. (The wooden leg, having no body heat, would not tempt the rattlers to strike). Nowadays, the events are mostly educational and conservation-oriented.

Previously, large numbers of rattlers were captured in preparation for the roundup by flushing them out of their wintering dens in Gopher Tortoise burrows. Gasoline was poured into the burrows, and the snakes were caught as tey emerged trying to escape the fumes. Since "gopher holes" are used as shelter by many creatures, this practice destroyed an important habitat in addition to upsetting the balance of nature by reducing the rattler population. This practice is now outlawed in Florida, and big rattlesnake roundups are a thing of the past. In recent years, the San Antonio rattlesnake roundup has become prrimarily an arts and crafts show plus a snake-handling demonstration featuring informative and environmentally sound lecturs about rattlesnakes.

Not so in Texas and Oklahoma where current roundups feature such craziness as getting into zipped sleeping bags with rattlers, dodging the strikes of rattlers, skinning live rattlers, auctioning their skins, and btchering rattlers for their meat. Thousands of snakes are gassed out of their dens annually and killed, a practice which `hows how little respect some people hae for the marvels of nature.

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