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| Vendor With Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup Wares |
Usually it is a rattlesnake rattle or skin that the inquirer is seeking.
The inquirer inquires because they search for rattlesnake info and that search brings them to my webpage about my one and only visit to the annual Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup.
That webpage usually comes up at the top, or nearly so, in info searches, hence the inquiries based on the false assumption that I have something to do with rattlesnakes.
I routinely politely explain that my only connection to rattlesnakes is having webpaged my one and only visit to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup.
Last year some guy from Europe, who heads some protect the endangered wildlife group, somehow came to the conclusion that I was some sort of advocate for the mass murder of rattlesnakes. He sent me a lot of very earnest information before I was able to make him understand I am not a mass murder of rattlesnakes advocate.
Today I was emailed information about the fact that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is currently holding meetings around Texas seeking input regarding the concept of banning the use of gasoline fumes to force rattlesnakes from their homes and into transports which bring them to a rattlesnake slaughterhouse, like the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup.
The Sweetwater Rattlesnake Rounduppers are already reacting to this threat to this snake murdering practice, which many consider to be barbaric, by opining about all the good the Roundup does for Sweetwater. Raising money, feeding people, buying them Christmas gifts, giving bikes to eight good students.
What I find amazing is the fact that year after year after year, for over six decades, the rattlesnakes breed in numbers prolific enough to support this annual Roundup in the Sweetwater neighborhood.
If there was not an annual Roundup and murder of Sweetwater area rattlesnakes would the area be over run by rattlesnakes?
Below is the video I made of my one and only visit to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. This was the first video I ever made, hence the odd opening credits part. I'd only come into possession of the camcorder which shot this video about two weeks before driving the 200 miles west to Sweetwater.
This is the first video I ever YouTubed and it has had more views than any of my other YouTube videos. And the most comments. The comments are not pretty, for the most part. Very angry, very profane comments.
1 comment:
"If there was not an annual Roundup and murder of Sweetwater area rattlesnakes would the area be over run by rattlesnakes?"
:) No, it wouldn't. The snakes captured and brought to the event aren't actually within the home range of the event itself, given the distances that the animals travel, etc.
Regardless of the impact on the population, the event is an embarrassment to the state, and the country. Unfortunately, it seems you are all to aware of as the mere mention of it on your site draws anger from all over the world, regardless of your actual position.
It's great to see Texas take a step in the right direction!
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