Rattle Snake Round-Up Day

What the day is

Rattlesnake Round-Up Day is observed on January 28. Roundups are community events, concentrated in Texas, Oklahoma and neighboring states, at which wild rattlesnakes are collected in bulk and brought to a central festival.

Origin and background

They began in the 1930s and after as pest control with a social function. Rural communities gathered to reduce snake numbers around livestock and homes, and the event became a fundraiser and a fixture of the local calendar. Some have run continuously for more than sixty years, drawing thousands of visitors.

The practice is now seriously disputed, and the objections are specific rather than sentimental. The main collection method at several roundups has been to spray gasoline into burrows to drive snakes out. Rattlesnakes shelter in shared underground refuges, and those refuges are used by a long list of other species, including tortoises, burrowing owls, other snakes and invertebrates. Gassing a burrow harms everything in it and contaminates the ground. Several states have banned the technique for exactly this reason.

The biological objection follows. Rattlesnakes are slow to mature and produce small litters at multi-year intervals, so sustained removal of adults is not easily absorbed by a population. They also control rodents, which is the service that pest-focused arguments tend to overlook.

The direction of travel is toward reform rather than abolition. Some long-running roundups have converted into no-kill festivals, keeping the education, the food and the fundraising while exhibiting snakes and releasing them. Attendance at the converted events has generally held up.

How to take part

• If you attend one, choose a no-kill festival, which exist and are advertised as such.
• Learn to identify the species where you live, since most bites involve people handling snakes deliberately.
• Leave snakes alone. Almost all will retreat if given the opportunity.
• Call a relocation service rather than killing a snake on your property.
• Read what gassing does to burrow communities, which is the heart of the objection.