Fred killed a timber rattler in SC last year and if this story is true then it's the creepiest thing I ever heard, and it reinforces my deep dislike for snakes. I have no reason to believe it's not, I know all the guys at the hunt club and could verify it in a second, but Fred and Jake both swear it's true.
Fred almost stepped on it. It was between six and seven feet long, sunning itself at the base of the tree where Fred's stand was. True. The skin is in Jake's room.
I just went and counted.....seventeen rattles, hanging in the living room off one of the deer racks. The only reason Fred didn't get bitten, is because the snake was stretched out, and curled half way around the tree, and had no time to coil up before Fred shot it. Yeah he could have scared it away and gone on up into his stand, but then he would have had to get down at some point, wondering all the while where the snake was.
The way Fred tells it, he shot it twice. The resultant damage left the snake with no fangs, or anything else in that general physical vicinity. He didn't think the other guys would believe it so he brought it back with him. Had to put it in a empty corn bag as it was still writhing around. When he got back to the house he spilled the snake out on the ground, still slithering around, still rattling and coiling, and it tried to strike a half dozen times. With no head.
He put it back in the bag, tied it with a string and went inside to supper and to bed. The next morning Jake asked Fred what he was going to do with it, were they going to eat it? Fred said he had considered it, initially, but the dang thing wouldn't hold still long enough the night before to skin it, and Fred said he would probably just take the rattles and the skin.
"It's bound to be dead by now."
They went out there to do just that, and found the bag still moving. Dumped the snake out and he tried to strike again, not only that, but tried to slither away and had to be 're-caught'. Fred says it took four guys to hold it down, to remove the rattles and skin the snake. Once SKINNED the snake was still moving and still tried a feeble half strike.
Now some may view this as a gruesome tale of torture, and they may be right, but my position on it is this. A venomous snake, to me, is an evil creature. What else could live that long and still be trying to kill, unless it was nothing more than pure unadulterated meaness and hatred wrapped up in a slimy slithery skin.
Some may cry 'self defense! It was trying to protect itself!' Well, I find myself not really caring one way or the other, and I'm usually a pretty humane person. I know most of the snakes around here that are harmless and I wouldn't harm them, but if this snake had bitten Fred, I know that based on where he was, he would not have made it back alive.
Snakes have routines and regular haunts, just like people, and he and Fred had chosen the same one. Fred won. That may sound harsh or mean, but I think it is just a fact of life. Kill or be killed, survival of the fittest. Whether it's beast against beast or man against beast.
I'm uncomfortable with the 'trophy taking' aspect if the whole deal, but there again, is another thing. When someone comes to the house and remarks on the rattles, they are taken down, handled carefully, passed around and the story comes forth, Fred with his face so serious, Jake solemn and and silent. According to Fred, the rattles hanging in the living room for all to see are a gentle reminder never to take the high grass lightly. The skin hanging in Jake's room, stretched across the wall at the foot of his bed, is a none too subtle reminder to walk the woods with care when he goes off hog hunting by himself.
The snake was sacrificed. I have grown comfortable with it's 'parts' hanging about the house. I understand the logic behind it. I don't always understand everything Fred says and does but usually with time comes understanding. He's taught Jake well, he spotted the snake yesterday and had to point it out to me. I don't care if what he did is considered right or wrong or politically or environmentally correct. I know in my heart that he is keeping himself and my boy safe. That's all I need to know.
