Despite Criticism, the Last of the Rattlesnake Roundups Hang On

In 1958, the Sweetwater Jaycees, of Nolan County, Texas, had trouble killing the 3,000 western diamondbacks captured for the group’s first Rattlesnake Roundup. When they pumped pickup-truck exhaust into enclosed pens, the animals refused to die. Next, they went to garden hoes, then lawn-edging blades. Today they use machetes.

In 2016, the roundup killed a record-setting 24,262 pounds of rattlesnakes. More recently, the kill has been around 5,000 pounds. Hunters get $15 per pound for the first 3,000 pounds, after that $10.

Rattlesnake roundups, said to have started in Oklahoma in 1939, are wildlife-killing contests. For months in advance, hunters fan out through the countryside, extracting hundreds of thousands of snakes from dens, then hold them in crowded, filthy conditions until showtime. Organizers claim their roundups protect…