Rattlesnakes appear to be breast and udder free.. The photographer was looking through the camera lens when that hook went into the bucket and a snake was suddenly being drawn much too close. The various Snake Pits had viewing stands.
Here we see the Handling and Safety Pit. Rattlesnakes are placed on a table to show what they look like when ready to strike. And then agitated to strike. An agitated rattler moves faster than one might have expected. But they are skinned in full view. A Chinese woman offered the Sweetwater Jaycees they run the Rattlesnake Roundup as well as the skinning and frying one dollar per snake gall bladder. To be used in some medicinal concoction believed by some to be as useful as Viagra.
This young Sweetwater native is showing us what a basket of fried rattlesnake looks like. Many people were heard to say it tastes just like chicken. But it is very bony, as in the worst type of bony fish, like a big-boned trout. With a poultry flavor. A very popular place to eat. Instead Miss Snake Charmer is chosen.
During her reign as Miss Snake Charmer the winner of this coveted title is required to skin or milk a snake. A choice between handling a bloody dead snake, or handling a cold-blooded live slithering snake. It is believed that no Miss Snake Charmer has ever been snake bit during her reign.
And unlike some previous Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundups no one is believed to have been snake bit at the event. Below are links to those blog posts It may be controversial, it may have its critics, it may be many things, but one thing the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup is not is boring.
Along with a big barbecue cook-off, filling the air with that wonderful smell of Texas barbecue. A huge rattlesnake sits above the entry to Nolan County Coliseum, the rattle at one end, the forked tongue at the other. This may have been the most disturbing thing seen. Total overload for even a mild ophiciophobe. This is the Snake Pit where the rattlesnakes are placed after they are measured and weighed, prior to being milked and skinned and fried or sold. Those who make it out alive are bought by a company called Maverick Trading Post that sells reptile meat to restaurants and makes snake paraphernalia.
In the Snake Pit two cowboy handlers walk amongst the slithering mass, causing some rattling, both of the snakes and of the nerves of the onlookers. The smell coming from this tank was not pleasant. Bounty Hunters brought in 4, pounds of rattlesnakes at the Roundup. This little guy, who looks like he has a snake coming out of his ear, is at the snake Milking Pit.
After being milked the milker walks the rattler around the Pit, letting onlookers feel the rattling tail or pet the snake. Watch our Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup Video. The handlers seemed to have no trouble with the snakes.
The woman on the right was a bit unsettled at being so close to the rattlesnakes, but she persisted in trying to get a photo.
Here we see the handler using a hook to pull a snake out of a bucket so it can be milked. A sign saying 'Snake Contest Sponsored by Coors Light' which would seem to contradict the common sense thinking that alcohol and snakes don't mix.
Click here for our Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup Video showing the above scene in action. Some things about the roundup have changed, while others stay as familiar as they have been for years on end, he said.
Nolan County Shriners and the Hylton Masonic Lodge now shepherd a gun and coin show, while the Jaycees are coordinating the event's flea market, McCann said.
The inside layout is generally the same, including the show pit, merchandise and, of course, the famous — or infamous, depending — skinning pit and other areas. McCann said his favorite part of the event is the variety of people he meets, who come from as far as Germany, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.
We have a family that comes from Australia. This is the start of their holiday weekend. They come here every single year. Rattlesnake roundups used to be common Southern events, McCann said, but they've dwindled over the years. So a bunch of farmers got together and they decided they were going to round them up.
Eventually, what was seen as grim necessity transformed into a community-wide event. Even all these years later, the event is "still about the snakes," he said, arguing an emphasis on safety education that focuses on how people should live in and around rattlesnakes.
There's no part of the event that teaches people how to be snake handlers, and there's no "getting in sleeping bags with rattlesnakes" or other gimmicks, he said.
The latter technique, called gassing, is a practice in which gasoline fumes are used to drive snakes en masse from their dens. Some herpetologists and environmental groups strongly decry the act and point toward potential environmental and ecological damage.
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