Rattlesnake roundups take 2 paths, drawing praise and scorn

By JEFF MARTIN
Associated Press

WOODSTOCK, Ga. (AP) — Animal rights activists praised an annual rattlesnake roundup in south Georgia that recently changed the format of this month’s event to celebrate living snakes without skinning and butchering them. But no such changes are occurring at a huge rattlesnake roundup beginning this weekend in Texas, a festival that the activists say is barbaric. The two events are a marked contrast in how rattlesnakes are handled. For animal advocates, they also show the huge divide in how they are seen, with the Georgia festival heralded and the Texas roundup shamed.