OMG guys. So much venom about that poor rattlesnake. In my early years, I hunted them for a sepentarium. I found them exciting and they certainly have their place in the environment. The serpenmtarium kept the snakes alive and milked them every two weeks or so for the venom which was used to create antivenin to treat rattlesnake bites.
I caught and sold many and never came across one that was aggressive unless it was cornered and felt it needed to protect itself. About half the snakes never rattled until you tried to pin them to pick them up and put them in the burlap bag I carried. I only killed one and that was because a bar owner wanted a skin to hang over the bar. I felt bad after I killed it. I did eat it and it was a bit tough and looked and tasted a lot like calamari to me. Good but not a lot of flavor. It didn’t taste like chicken Dean. It tasted like rattlesnake!
I came to admire those snakes and had a healthy respect for what they could do if you let your guard down or became careless. We used to let them loose in my back yard and play with them before taking them to the sepentarium. My buddy was handling a copperhead and got a bit careless. It sank a fang into his index finger. He spent a couple of days in the hospital and his hand swelled and turned blue.
I can understand killing a rattlesnake in one’s yard. But I would have caught it and taken it to a remote area and turned it loose. But someone not well versed in how to catch and properly hold these snake should never try that. The timber rattler is a diminishing species and should never be killed unless there is a real need to. One in a yard needs to be addressed but I would have preferred that someone from DNR had come and removed the snake to be placed elsewhere. I have a soft spot for timber rattlers.
This is me in my younger days with a pretty timber rattler.
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