What’s a Rattlesnake Roundup?

Any organized public event centered on the collection, display, handling, or exhibition of wild or captive rattlesnakes, often combined with educational, cultural, or community activities.

Rattlesnake Roundups Have a Spectrum of Impact

Full Kill

Wild snakes are collected without regulation and killed in a public display.

Mixed Outcome

Wild snakes are collected and displayed with little to no regulation, some are killed.

Live Collection

Wild snakes are collected and displayed, outcomes after event are uncertain.

Temporary Exhibit

Wild snakes are collected and held temporarily for the event, displayed, and released after.

Captive Education

Educational programming with only captive snakes used.

We want to Right the Roundups: move them causing the most (Full Kill) to least (Captive Education) harm to rattlesnakes and their ecosystems.

WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE RATTLESNAKE ROUNDUPS?

In the United States, there are 13 rattlesnake roundups where wild snakes are taken from their home to be killed or sold for slaughter (skull and crossbones icons on the map). Some roundups have evolved into educational festivals where no snakes are killed (heart icons on the map). Are we missing anything? Please let us know!

Together We Can Right the Roundups

Contact the Sweetwater Jaycees and ask them to replace the roundup with a Captive Education festival that celebrates wildlife instead of slaughtering them.

Discuss this with your family, friends, and neighbors: Share this page on Twitter and Facebook.

Write a letter to the editor of your local paper, especially if you live near a rattlesnake roundup. Use some of these facts about rattlesnake roundups.

Old school: download, print, and distribute this factsheet.

Contact the Sweetwater Jaycees

Interested in participating in future projects like Rattlesnake Love Letters?

Sign up to be the first to hear new snake stories and opportunities to take action to reform roundups in ASP’s fortnightly newsletter. You’ll also get our guide with 11 simple ways to help snakes (and other wildlife too).


About Sweetwater

(and other Full Kill roundups)

Each year, tens of thousands of rattlesnakes are taken from the wild to be displayed and slaughtered for entertainment and profit at rattlesnake roundups. Professional hunters, not bound by ‘bag’ or ‘take’ limits, remove snakes from their native habitats and are awarded with cash prizes for bringing in the most and biggest snakes. Most snakes are caught by pouring gasoline into their winter dens, which pollutes surrounding land and water and may impact up to 350 other wildlife species.

Science does not support claims that roundups are required to prevent rattlesnake overpopulation. Like other wild animals with natural predators, snake populations are maintained by prey abundance (rodents) and levels of predation and disease. Unlike traditional game hunting, there is no monitoring or reporting to regulate this slaughter of snakes, which has likely contributed to the decline in some rattlesnake species. Learn more.

Download the factsheet

Rattlesnakes Are Actually Awesome!

Rattlesnakes help people by playing important roles in the ecosystem.
Rattlesnakes have social lives, where moms care for babies.

AT RATTLESNAKE ROUNDUPS, CRUELTY IS BUSINESS AS USUAL

  • Rattlesnakes are kicked around,
  • bruised and bleeding from rough handling and restraint,
  • unsafely displayed for entertainment,
  • shot in the head with a bolt gun, and decapitated by machete.
  • Their disembodied heads continue gasping, hearts beating,
  • and skinless bodies writhing long after decapitation.

See more photos.

WHERE DOES YOUR RATTLESNAKE MEAT COME FROM?

There are no rattlesnake farms. The largest source of commercially available meat is Rattlesnake Roundups. Learn more.

  • “Every rattlesnake that is killed has an impact on the ecosystem, and future generations of humans will look back at history, stunned that such environmental abuse was allowed to continue unabated.” Phillip Arena, PhD
  • “Removing many tons of helpful predators from nature annually is unscientific, unjustified and unsustainable.” Clifford Warwick, Consultant Biologist and Medical Scientist
  • “The festive atmosphere at these events conceals obvious and heinous animal cruelty, and emphasizes the peculiar ways we humans accept it as part of our culture.” Jo-Anne McArthur, photojournalist, We Animals
  • a thousand snakes screaming
    “Rattlesnakes rattle when they are terrified, not angry or preparing to attack as many think. The sound of rattling at these roundups is in fact a thousand snakes screaming.” Melissa Amarello, MS Biology, Co-founder ASP

Read more statements from experts about rattlesnake roundups.

THE SECRET LIVES OF SNAKES

See more on our YouTube channel.

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