Palmer Events Center
Let Them Be
RECEIVED Sat., July 18, 2015
Dear Editor,
In Jessi Cape's article, "Snakes on a Plate"[Food, July 10], the writer makes the naive and completely unsupported suggestion that rattlesnakes are a "thriving or overpopulated species" making "exotic meals like rattlesnake a viable option in our region." Only a brief bit of Internet research reveals that 11 species of snakes are listed by state authorities as "threatened" in Texas including the timber rattlesnake. Further examination reveals that the he-men of West Texas use gasoline to drive rattlesnakes out of their dens for "sport" to capture over a thousand last year for slaughter at the annual Sweetwater "Rattlesnake Roundup." Perhaps Cape's next article can be more informed and not encourage the decimation of another poor species on this tired old planet at the hand of man.
In Jessi Cape's article, "Snakes on a Plate"[Food, July 10], the writer makes the naive and completely unsupported suggestion that rattlesnakes are a "thriving or overpopulated species" making "exotic meals like rattlesnake a viable option in our region." Only a brief bit of Internet research reveals that 11 species of snakes are listed by state authorities as "threatened" in Texas including the timber rattlesnake. Further examination reveals that the he-men of West Texas use gasoline to drive rattlesnakes out of their dens for "sport" to capture over a thousand last year for slaughter at the annual Sweetwater "Rattlesnake Roundup." Perhaps Cape's next article can be more informed and not encourage the decimation of another poor species on this tired old planet at the hand of man.
Kent C. Anschutz