Organizers of the world’s largest rattlesnake “roundup” have downplayed concerns that thousands of snakes will be let loose in Texas after a record haul meant that hunters couldn’t find buyers for all of their legless reptiles.



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The 58th annual roundup event, held in the small west Texas town of Sweetwater, hauled in a record 24,262lb of snakes, primarily western diamondback rattlesnakes – roughly four times the typical haul. Each snake weighs about 1lb and can be sold for around $10 for meat or to be made into clothing and accessories.

The enormous catch, aided by ideal rattlesnake wrangling conditions, has led to concerns that hunters will simply let snakes go because they couldn’t find buyers at the Sweetwater event. But organizers have denied there will be thousands of dumped snakes.

“There’s always a market for snakes,” said Rob McCann, spokesman for the event. “There will be nothing left over, they will be processed for meat or made into wallets.

“It was a phenomenal year, but a lot of hard work. There was a perfect storm of conditions – a lot of late-season moisture, which meant the rodent population exploded. The snakes didn’t need to den very deep for us to get them.”

The event has proved controversial among animal welfare groups and herpetologists, who have criticized the conditions the snakes are kept in and the practice of gassing them out of their nests using gasoline.

Once captured, the snakes are taken to the four-day event, where they are displayed in giant snake pits, butchered for cooking demonstrations and sold to buyers. There are also various competitions – this year, the longest snake prize was given to a serpent 75.5in long.

Proponents of the roundup claim that it brings great economic benefits to Sweetwater and helps protect people from bites by controlling rattlesnake numbers.

Lee Fitzgerald, a herpetologist at Texas A&M University, said the roundups “have to have an impact upon the snake population at some level”.

“Serious consideration needs to be given to bag limits,” he said. “Rattlesnake hunting and trade needs to be brought into line with all wildlife management in the USA. If you went out to hunt grey squirrels there would be a limit on how many you could kill, so why should you be able to kill as many snakes as you want?

“I would also not allow gasoline to be used as it’s unethical. It’s possible that a lot of effort was put into this roundup as a show of force, to send a strong signal to the opponents of this that it can’t be stopped.”