March 4, 2016
By Paul Joseph, Paragon Communications News Director –
A group of conservation biologists is working to stop the wholesale killing of rattlesnakes each spring at numerous roundup festivals across the South and Southwest.
The nonprofit, “Advocates for Snake Preservation” argues that there is no science to support that roundups prevent overpopulation and that in some areas, the species is becoming endangered.
Melissa Amarello, co-founder of Advocates for Snake Preservation, says that reviled though they may be, rattlesnakes are important to the balance of nature.
Amarello says early spring is prime time for most roundups and her group focused on last weekend’s Sweetwater, Texas “Jaycees Rattlesnake Roundup” in West Texas, which bills itself as the world’s largest.
She says her group documented last year’s event in Sweetwater, where professional hunters gather thousands of snakes, put them on display and then slaughter them for their skin, meat and rattles.
She says her Arizona-based group doesn’t want to end the roundup festivals but to stop the unnecessary killing of huge numbers of snakes, mostly for entertainment. Amarello says several festivals have become even more successful by not killing snakes but celebrating their area’s local wildlife.
The Sweetwater, Texas Jaycees report that their annual spring festival brings more than 25-thouand visitors each year with an economic impact of more than eight million dollars to the farming and ranching community of just over 10-thousand people.
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