Rattlesnake roundups are cruel and ecologically damaging events that have taken place in many parts of the United States since the late 1920s. Every year, in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Alabama and Georgia, thousands of rattlesnakes are captured and slaughtered or used in competitive events in ways that violate the most basic principles of wildlife management and humane living. Though they are often promoted as fundraising events for local civic causes, rattlesnake roundups primarily benefit their organizers and corporate sponsors.

Organizers claim that roundups help rid range and timberlands of a threat to humans and livestock. But this rationale has been amply refuted by physicians, biologists and veterinarians who have conducted studies showing that the number of livestock deaths from rattlesnake bites is negligible, and that, instead of ridding humans of a dangerous pest, rattlesnake roundups actually increase the number of humans bitten.

Rattlesnake roundups promote unhealthy, and potentially dangerous, attitudes toward wildlife. They encourage overexploitation of wildlife, condone cruelty as acceptable behavior, and endorse the attitude that the capture, abuse, and slaughter of potentially dangerous animals are ways to demonstrate courage or skill. Such activities are more accurately described as reckless personal endangerment at the expense of the animal victims, a healthy ecosystem, and the public good.

For many, if not most, rattlesnake roundups, snakes are driven out of their hiding places with gasoline, stored in unhygienic conditions without water or food, and packed tightly into containers for transport to and display at roundups. Many snakes arrive at roundups crushed to death, dehydrated, or starved. Those who survive may be used in cruel public demonstrations and daredevil acts, and are eventually decapitated, an inefficient and cruel method of slaughter for reptiles.

Many herpetologists believe that the first decade of the 21st century will decide the fate of several species of rattlesnakes. We must act now to save remaining rattlesnake populations and gather the knowledge necessary for the development of long-term management strategies. Several species of rattlesnakes could become extinct just as we are beginning to understand their ecological importance.

Even though rattlesnake roundups constitute one of the greatest threats to wildlife in the United States and teach damaging ecological practices and cruelty, widespread prejudice against rattlesnakes enables unregulated exploitation of them to continue unchallenged. Roundups have become intimately tied into the complex and unmonitored interstate and international trade in rattlesnake parts and skins. This commercialization of rattlesnakes is a breach of trust between the public and those charged with the management of wildlife, rangeland, and forest, yet it goes largely unnoticed because of the general lack of information about rattlesnakes' role within the ecosystem.

In the future, we must encourage socially responsible organizations and citizens to understand the cruelty and destructiveness of rattlesnake roundups and their implications for society. As this understanding grows, we can be sure that these events will end, to the benefit of people and wildlife alike.