Humane Society asking snake hunt organizers to discontinue events

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The Humane Society of the United States would like for 2002 to be the last year five communities in Oklahoma hold rattlesnake hunts. <br><br>Teresa Telecky, wildlife trade program

Monday, April 1st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The Humane Society of the United States would like for 2002 to be the last year five communities in Oklahoma hold rattlesnake hunts.

Teresa Telecky, wildlife trade program director for the society, said the group has written letters to organizers of such roundups since 2000, but none have ever responded.

``These are among the most deliberately cruel public events in the United States,'' Telecky said.

Towns use the events, which begin this month and continue into May, to raise money and attract tourists. Organizers also say the hunts keep the rattlesnake population in check.

Waynoka's Rattlesnake Roundup begins this weekend. Waurika's roundup is scheduled for April 12-14, followed by the Apache event April 18-21. The Mangum Rattlesnake Derby is set for April 26-28 and the hunt in Okeene is scheduled for May 3-5.

Paul Johannesmeyer is a member of the Diamondback Club, which organizes Okeene's event. Johannesmeyer said residents started the roundup in 1939, and he hasn't noticed a depletion of the snake population.

``I don't think you can ever get rid of them,'' he said. ``If they (the society) had to live around them, they might have a different point of view.''

The society protests many aspects of the hunts, including public slaughter. Once a snake is decapitated, the body and head can live for an hour, Telecky said.

``It's sending the wrong message to children,'' she said.

In the guided public hunts, organizers release snakes in the area beforehand, and amateurs hunting the creatures often injure them with tongs used to catch them, Telecky said.

The society has sent investigators to the hunts in Waurika and Mangum where they examined the bodies of dead snakes and found broken ribs, cuts, bruises, punctured eyes and other traumas. Some injuries could be from handlers and others from the snakes fighting.

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, which regulates the events, has made it illegal to use toxic or petroleum-based substances on or around snake burrows. But Telecky alleges that hunters at the events told the society's undercover investigators they used gasoline.

The gasoline makes the burrows uninhabitable by snakes and other wildlife and also can contaminate groundwater, she said.

Organizers say they follow strict guidelines, including not accepting snakes that have been gassed and only hunting snakes from March 1 to April 30, said Sherri England, a Waurika organizer.

Johannesmeyer said snakes are not shuttled from one event to the next nor are they kept for long periods in pits. Snakes will not eat or drink when they are captured so they don't need food or water in the pits, he said.

The club uses money raised to fund civic projects. The Waurika event, which usually attracts 15,000 visitors, is the fire department's sole fund-raiser, England said.

Telecky said if the main purpose of the hunts is to lower the snake population for the sake of public safety, the goal isn't being met.