Thousands of Snakes Died for Fun

The rattlesnake handler stirred the snakes in the pit so that they lived long enough to be skinned.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – There is a predator species on Earth that decimates and murders just for its own amusement. Clubbing, stabbing, beheading and live skinning are actions completed with a big satisfactory smile. Humans are super-predators who forgive nobody and nothing when it comes to their own pleasure for killing. And the Sweetwater Festival where thousands of snakes died for fun is no different.

The “World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup” in Sweetwater, Texas, gathered more than twice as many visitors as it has inhabitants. Over 25,000 people came to the glorious south to witness cowboys beheading and skinning live rattlesnakes.

But that was only the beginning of all the fun the “Jaycees” were promising to the visitors. Curious people from all around the country were able to witness snakes being skinned alive. And the amusement would not be complete without a pile of pebble-sized beating snake hearts that reminded the visitors that the animals felt everything, the beheading, the skinning, even the organ removing.

Ironically, a man in snake-skinned booths stood in the middle of a pool filled with netted rattlesnakes and stirred them from time to time so that the reptiles would not suffocate each other in their fright. Miss Texas herself joined the man for a while, modeling a similar pair of sturdy, fashionable boots.

But the snakes did not die in vain. After being gassed and murdered in a spectacular way, the skin was sold, and the meat was eaten. So the participants in the roundup were able to munch on a plate of sizzling fresh snake meat while admiring a pile of beating hearts, or studying the skin stripping technique.

According to the co-founder of the Snake Preservation Advocates Association, Melissa Amarello, the reptiles don’t rattle their tails when they are about to attack as most people have learned from educational cartoons. They do so when they are frightened.

So all of the rattlings sounds that the 25,000 participants and 11,000 locals heard during the festival were screams of terror that emanated from the defenseless reptiles. But Miss Texas was stunning, and her boots matched the pit in the middle of which she was standing.

It seems that this tradition that the locals care deeply about started 59 years ago when the Jaycees launched a new rattlesnake population control measure. The slim reptiles were accused of the death of dozens of people and cattle each year.

Latest studies suggest that each year roughly four people die due to snakebites. That is less than the number of individuals struck by lightning or trampled to death by the same cattle they are trying to protect. But thousands of snakes died for fun and the safety of roughly four Sweetwater inhabitants this year. And the mass murder provided a couple of million dollars to the local economy.

Image source: www.pixabay.com

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Matthew Slotkin

Matthew Slotkin has graduated from Rice University with a degree in History and English. He worked as an assistant professor before joining The Mirror Daily as a full time writer.