Where did we go wrong?

Once the symbol of a proud and defiant young nation, the Rattlesnake is now hunted mercilessly. Where did we go wrong?
Remember the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare? In the end, the tortoise won the race. What about the tale of the Tortoise and the Rattlesnake? In this story the tortoise loses everything. The story? Well, in Georgia there is a game called “Gas the Rattlesnake”. This is done so they can be captured and taken to one of two Rattlesnake Roundups. Here snakes are “milked” for venom, killed and skinned, cooked, gawked at, sold and generally mistreated. The tortoise is an innocent bystander. The way it works is this: the snake lives in the burrow that the tortoise digs, kind of like a roommate. When the strong and fearless snake hunter blows gasoline into the burrow, the snake leaves and the tortoise dies. And so do the many other creatures that live in the burrow. And the point? The point is that the whole exercise is pointless and destructive. Nobody needs to catch and kill these beautiful and increasingly rare snakes. The whole exercise is for a certain kind of person to demonstrate “manliness” and a few cities to make money on the festival. And over 300 species that live with the tortoise die for the morons. And of course the snakes die too. What a total waste of life.

Gadsden Flag Image: Public domain.