Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 20, 1990)
The Battalion Tuesday, March 20, Diamonds in the ruff W hat do you do with 3,126 pounds of rattlesnakes? West Texas ranchers took them to the 32ncl Annual World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater, Texas, held earlier this month. Ranchers hunt, trap, milk and skin Western diamond back rattlesnakes around Sweetwater for the roundup’s trophies and prizes. For three days this year, 30,000 specta tors took part in rattlesnake safety dem onstrations and guided tours to snake habitats. They treated themselves to fried rattlesnake and rattlesnake curios sold on the floor of the coliseum that houses the roundup. The money raised from the annual event goes to support the Sweetwater Jay- cees. Clockwise from top right: A Jaycee stirs up hundreds of snakes in a holding pit making the snakes move around so the smaller snakes can breathe. A buyer from Rare Skins Inc. mea sures the length of a di- amondback skin. Three boys watch a snake move up the wall of the safety demonstration pit through a protective plexiglass window. A snake is milked by forc ing it to bite a vile while a handler squeezes its venom out. Photos and Text by Mike C. Mulvey T1 sion Point 01F Th lived kren v asioi plicat them Th °Pen