Here’s the Rise Against Rattlesnake Roundups group on Facebook.
The rattlesnake is one of our national symbols.
Ever see this?
This is the Gadsden flag. It was designed by the South Carolina revolutionary Christopher Gadsden.
Timber and Eastern diamondback rattlesnakes were very common in the Thirteen Colonies, and they came to symbolize the colonist’s grievances.
The truth is rattlesnakes don’t attack people.
But if you tread on them and try to kill them, they will fight back.
Everyone living in the Thirteen Colonies would have recognized this.
They were not seeking a war with the mother country. Rather, the mother country had come to oppress them and take away rights that had long be established for British subjects.
So like a rattlesnake they struck back in defense of themselves.
But now, we’ve got all this messed up. People think rattlesnakes attack.
Now, most rattlesnake species are not endangered, but the US Fish and Wildlife Service has suggested that the Eastern diamondback be put on the Endangered Species List. It is believed that its numbers have dropped dramatically in recent years, and if the snakes are protected, they won’t be subject to roundups or wanton killing.
Timber rattlesnakes now exist as a vestige of what they once were in the Northeast. Most states protect them, but of course, the one state that gives them no protection at all is also the one that made the species the official state reptile. Yes, West Virginia has no protections for this snake, even though the state legislature made the timber rattler an official symbol.
Primate evolution and natural history has left us with a strong natural aversion to snakes.
This aversion sometimes borders upon pathological hatred, and unfortunately, that’s what’s been fed into with these rattlesnake roundups.
These roundups could be wonderful educational opportunities.
But all you’re going to learn from seeing an animal with its mouth sewn shut is that cruelty is okay.
We have to have another message for the twenty-first century.
It’s certainly true that horses, cattle, and dogs get killed by snakebite.
And it’s true that people also fall victim to snakes.
But humans kill far more snakes than snakes kill us.
I have no problem with people wanting to control snakes on their properties.
But if people kill them, it must be done humanely.
We should not torture animals just because we don’t like them.
There are shocking parallels between what people do to rattlesnakes and what we once did to wolves.
It was not unusual for wolf trappers to bind the wolves’ jaws shut and then throw them to the dogs.
Or if they were particularly cruel, let them run off to die of dehydration or hyperthermia. (Remember that dogs and wolves must open their mouths to cool themselves.)
In both cases, people have allowed their irrational hatred to provide license for totally reprehensible behavior.
That’s not a good conservation ethic.
At all.
That’s an ethic that leads to destruction.
And one that we should not support.
Rattlesnake roundups must change.
They must be regulated to ensure a sustainable harvest.
And obviously cruel practices should be made illegal.
I guess it’s because we’re talking about snakes that it’s hard to get people concerned about these issues.
It’s hard to get people to be concerned with an animal that doesn’t really have social life.
They aren’t wolves or mountain gorillas.
But if we lost them, we’d lose one of our national symbols.
Bald eagles represent liberty.
But ratttlesnakes represent our ability to defend our liberty.
It’s a symbol that has been embraced by the Tea Party Movement, which I know is not particularly fond of things like the ESA.
But if we’re not careful, someday we’ll be talking about the rattlesnake on the Gadsden Flag, and it will make no more sense than the dragon that St. George supposedly killed.
Let’s try to understand rattlesnakes as they are.
Let’s treat them with respect.
Don’t tread them.
You can say that again Scottie.
(BTW: it looks as tho our beloved Sammie has osteosarcoma so he won’t be w/ us much longer. Another vestige of breeding for large size.)
I’m so sorry.
I lost a dog to that in 2008. It’s got to be the worst kind of cancer. So much pain.
Thanks Scottie…it means a lot.
Afterthought: The statistics I’ve read indicate that a giant dog (St. Bernard, Great Dane, etc.) is 20 times more likely to contract osteosarcoma than a small dog (< 45 lbs); and that a large dog (Lab, Golden GSD, etc.) is 8 times more likely to contract osteosarcoma than a small dog.
My question here is: Based on what you know about dogs and the wolves most likely to have been their primary progenitors, is 45lb an optimum size for the domestic dog and/or its wolf antecedents?
Osteosarcoma is what took our first dog, a Rottie. My condolences.
Thanks Pai. Fortunately he’s totally unaware of whats going on and though sleeping more because of the meds and forced to maintain a very limited outside regimen, he’s his usual goofy self. All the angst is w/ me.
I watched a show on rattlesnakes a couple of years ago that had a section on these round up. They didn’t go nearly as far into the animal cruelty perpetrated as this video did and now I think they really should have. One interesting point they did bring up is that the round ups are putting pressures on the snake populations such that more and more rattlesnakes don’t rattle since that was one of the ways they were being found.
I’d rather live near poisonous snakes that made a sound to warn you than ones who were totally silent, personally. They’re basically making the snakes MORE dangerous to humans. People are so dumb.
while I would never try some of the demos he does with his snakes with a Mohave rattler, there’s similar info regarding their danger here:
http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/c.s.scutulatus.html
Rattlesnakes scare the pants off me just because of my dogs. We don’t have many around here, but they are up on the mountain where we do a fair bit of hiking. The first time I saw one, my dog was standing oh six inches away from it. I wet my pants, called my dog, and the snake did… nothing. It wasn’t interested in destroying my dog. It was interested in the sunbeam filtering through the trees.
But I do worry about my dogs stepping on them simply because they didn’t know they were there, and the idea of that terrifies me. I know that if I’m bitten, I’m probably not going to die (though it will really really suck). My 40 pound Border Collie, though? It’s not such a sure thing.
But to round up and kill the snakes? No. We are the interlopers, not them. They’re just trying to get by.
I keep DMSO on hand in case one of my dogs or cats suffers a snakebite. It’s an old coonhunters’ emergency snakebite remedy and it’s a good one. Most bites to pets occur to the face or front limbs. The venom from the bite is usually not directly fatal to a dog or cat, but the immediate swelling that soon follows the bite can quickly cause asphyxiation. The swelling and engorgement of blood and fluid in the tissue can also interfere with circulation. The DMSO, used correctly, reduces the swelling to a manageable level until you can get to a vet, who can determine if the dog needs antivenin. It has saved many a dog’s life or limb. DMSO is always in my pack when I go walking in the woods with my dogs.
A rattlesnake bite anywhere on the dog’s torso or belly is much less common, but much more dangerous than a bite to the face or legs. A dog or cat with a rattlesnake bite to the body needs immediate veterinary attention & often requires hospitalization for treatment.
Tame country that ours is, we only have the adder to worry about – only slightly as they are about as toxic as a couple of honey bees.
We really have to worry about only northern copperheads, and they really aren’t much more venomous than that.
Timber rattlers usually stay in very remote areas and avoid people at all costs. That may be the result of selection pressures on them from people spending the past 200 or more years killing them.
But you have to go looking for timber rattlesnakes. You normally don’t run into them.
There hasn`t been a fatality from an adder bite for over a hundred years….still, if a child was bitten, it could be nasty, and you certainly wouldn`t want your dog bitten by one..
Meanwhile England can get on with exterminating badgers……
Elizabeth.
I’m a bit ambivalent on the subject of badgers, Elizabeth, and I hope someone comes up with the conclusion soon, after this trial killing takes place, that it doesn’t work because survivors join other colonies and therefore spread any TB infection they may be carrying to new areas.
We have one quarter of the european badger population in the British Isles and that’s a lot of them. I’ve loved them ever since I first read Wind In The Willows as an infant, so I hope the long term definitive solution is inoculating cattle against TB.
Copperhead bites are not very toxic compared to other poisonous snakes, but if you’ve ever been bitten by one, you know they hurt a lot worse than any number of bees! I’ve never known a dog or cat to die from a copperhead bite though. The main complication from copperhead bites in animals is the abscess that often develops following the bite. Reducing the swelling as soon as possible minimizes the tissue damage but the animal sometimes needs a course of antibiotics if an abscess occurs.
Rattlesnake bites are more dangerous. Although many dogs and people survive bites from timber rattlers, I have known several dogs that died after a bite from a timber rattlesnake. When humans who use snakes in church services die from bites, it’s usually from bites from a timber rattlesnake. Of course, they also do not seek any kind of medical treatment for the bites, either; when prompt medical attention is obtained, very few people or dogs die from the bite of a timber rattler. I’ve never been bitten by a rattlesnake, but people who have been bitten by both tell me that the pain from the rattlesnake bite is exponentially worse than the copperhead’s bite. I don’t want to find out; the copperhead bite hurt bad enough :-).
A curious myth has arisen about timber rattlesnakes “crossing” with black snakes. Timber rattlers are sometimes melanistic, mostly a sooty black color with the characteristic rattlesnake markings showing through. Many people, finding one of these blackish rattlers, assume that it’s a cross between a rattler and a black racer. It doesn’t do much good to tell them that would be less likely than, say, a cross between a dog and a horse. The myth persists.
Eastern diamondback rattlers, which we also have here, are a horse of quite a different color. Their bites can be fatal if left untreated, and even when the person or animal survives a bite, there is a lot of lasting tissue damage and scarring. They are rare, though. Not counting dead ones, I could count the ones that I’ve seen in the wild on one hand.
Most people here kill snakes on sight, not caring whether they are endangered. I have a friend who is a staunch conservationist. He stops traffic to get turtles out of the road. But he will go out of his way to run over snakes. ANY snakes. He lives in southwestern WV, where eastern diamondback rattlesnakes are extremely rare. One day he saw a large snake in the road and swerved to hit it. It was a big eastern diamondback rattlesnake. I berated him for killing it, saying “Don’t you know that the eastern diamondback is an endangered species in West Virginia?”. The staunch conservationist’s reply? “If one gets within 6 feet of my truck it’s damn sure endangered”. Sadly, that seems to be the attitude of most people in this area. It’s not even shoot-shovel-shut up; people here BRAG about killing snakes. It’s disheartening and disgusting.
I rarely see rattlesnakes here. I remember as a child a very large eastern diamondback that my dad killed one night while coonhunting. It was much longer than our kitchen table. I’ve never seen a bigger one, even in zoos. But they are very, very rare here, mainly living in low-lying, swampy areas. We have timber rattlers here, but they live mainly in the rocky areas near the ridges and mountaintops. You don’t often see them near human habitation. Another poisonous snake found here, but infrequently, is the water moccassin. It’s a close cousin of the copperhead (same genus, different species). My afore-mentioned conservationist friend was bitten by a water moccasin while wading, fishing, in Mingo County, WV several years ago. Maybe that explains his phobia of snakes.
It’s very difficult to convince people that snakes fulfill a vital ecological niche and should be left alone. Then you have a lot of religious folks who still equate snakes with the devil. Attitudes are very slowly changing. I just hope the changes are in time to prevent the snakes’ extinction.
Great post, Scottie!
In West Virginia, there are no protections for timber rattlers.
As you go north into West Virginia, melanism becomes much more common.
Where I grew up, the rumor was the black ones were female and the speckled ones were male.
Of course, that’s not true.
Black rat snakes may not hybridize with rattlers, but kingsnakes, if they are around will keep the copperheads down. So will black racers.