Rattlesnake roundup in Georgia now a humane wildlife festival

LARGE: The eastern diamondback rattlesnake. Picture: D Bruce Means

Calls for final roundup to do the same

January 2012: Georgia could soon say goodbye to the outdated ‘rattlesnake roundups'. The Evans County Wildlife Club in Claxton, Georgia, have changed their annual round-up to a wildlife festival where snakes will be celebrated rather than collected in their hundreds and butchered for their meat and skin.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Coastal Plains Institute, Protect All Living Species and One More Generation have sent a letter to the club, congratulating them on the decision, and are also presenting a 5,000-strong petition to Whigham Coummunity Club, which hosts the state's last remaining rattlesnake roundup.

‘We're so happy the rattlesnake roundup in Claxton is being switched to a humane event that celebrates these great native animals and recognizes the importance of saving them,' said Collette Adkins Giese, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity who works to protect rare and vanishing reptiles and amphibians. ‘The Whigham Community Club needs to follow suit. It needs to recognize that massacres of endangered animals are just wrong, and clearly the wrong message to send to young people about our relationship to the natural world.'

'All wildlife has a valuable place in nature'
The Evans County Wildlife Club is replacing its annual rattlesnake roundup with the Claxton Rattlesnake and Wildlife Festival, which will feature displays of the imperilled eastern diamondback rattlesnake and other native wildlife. Educational programmes, entertainment and a variety of other activities will be offered at the event, held during the second weekend in March.

‘We congratulate the sponsors of the Claxton event for recognizing that all wildlife has a valuable place in nature,' said Dr Bruce Means, director of the Coastal Plains Institute and an expert on the eastern diamondback rattlesnake. ‘Now we hope to get the sponsors of the Whigham roundup to see the same light.'

Rattlesnake roundups are depleting populations of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes. Analysis of data from four roundups in the southeastern United States shows a steady decline in the weights of prize-winning eastern diamondbacks and the number collected. This once-common species is being pushed toward extinction not only by hunting pressure but also by habitat loss and road mortality.

‘Georgia is blessed with a rich natural heritage of animals and plants. All of these species - even the rattlesnakes - should be allowed to exist,' said Bill Matturro of Protect All Living Species. ‘Rattlesnakes serve an important role in the food chain by controlling rodent populations and should be respected.'