'Rattlesnake Roundup' teaches cruelty is fun (Loony Lefty Alert)

CNN ^ | April 9, 2014 | Wendy Townsend

[kingattax]

(CNN) -- At the annual rattlesnake roundup in Sweetwater, Texas, in early March, Jaycee sponsors and volunteers slaughtered 3,890 pounds of rattlesnakes.

The event is billed as "Fun for the whole family," and children take their turns to skin a snake, and afterward, press their hands covered with snake blood onto a wall of handprints.

The Jaycees, short for the U.S. Junior Chamber, bills itself as a group that gives young people "the tools they need to build the bridges of success." The Sweetwater branch has been holding what it calls "The World's Largest Rattlesnake Round-Up" for 56 years on the first weekend in March, and the tool for success that it teaches young people is that it's fun to kill and torture animals.

For weeks or even months, rattlesnakes are stored in crowded barrels until it's roundup time. The snakes that have not suffocated under their kin arrive hungry, dehydrated, and sick from gasoline that was sprayed into their burrows to flush them out.

Editor's note: Wendy Townsend writes for children and young adults, and she and her family raise lizards as pets. Her third novel, "Blue Iguana," has just been released by namelos. The opinions in this commentary are solely those of the author.

Wendy Townsend and her rhinocerous iguana Sebastian.

[kingattax]

somebody tell Wendy not to go down to Trinidad. Sebastian would end up as lunch. Them folks love iguana.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Unlike the Knockout Game, which is just good clean fun for Trayvons of all ages and genders.

[JoeProBono]

[JRandomFreeper]

Iguana tamales are good eats.

/johnny

[M Kehoe]

Wendy, to get a real perspective about rattlesnakes, may I suggest you spend a week at the Seminole reservation in the Everglades this September/October? Trust me, it's a blast...and would help with your "research," and "writing."

5.56mm

[yarddog]

Smokey killed this one humanely with his teeth.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Obviously these children are in training for Obama’s Civilian National Security Force. If they can be desensitized to the suffering of snakes, they can to humans as well.

[yarddog]

I killed this Florida Diamondback humanely with a .30 Tokarew.

[okie01]

I wonder what Wendy would think of my high school shop project -- a rattlesnake catcher built expressly for the Waynoka, OK Rattlesnake Roundup.

Beheaded every damn snake we could get to poke its head out of the burrow...

Wonder if Wendy would like to go on a wild pig hunt down around Lampasas...

[bigbob]

Anything to do with killin’ snakes gets my vote.

[tumblindice]

Wendy may be a Reptoid.

[Charles Martel]

Someone should send Wendy a link to the old Jerry Clower recording, “The Rat-Killin’”. Haaawww!!

[henkster]

Pssst...Wendy; they’re f***in snakes.

[dragnet2]

The event is billed as "Fun for the whole family," and children take their turns to skin a snake, and afterward, press their hands covered with snake blood onto a wall of handprints.

I like the bloody wall mural bit. Will they have bull and chicken fights at the event? Maybe a rabbit head toss?

[Nuc 1.1]

Well done.

[yarddog]

Thanks and to all you Texans, we grow em bigger in Florida.

[Darren McCarty]

ROFL! That dog seems so excited about it too. Glad it wasn’t bitten.

[Charles Martel]

Yeah, y’all do grow ‘me bigger in Florida. Texas balances things out with the scorpions, though.

[yarddog]

He was actually showing off. He would look back at me every now and then to see if I was watching.

[skinkinthegrass]

and don't forget the armadillos!
possum on the half shell.