Change Rattlesnake Roundups to Humane Festivals

Each year thousands of rattlesnakes are removed from the wild and killed at "rattlesnake roundups." Rattlesnakes play a key role in the food web, maintaining balance in nature by preying on rodents, but hunting of snakes for roundups is pushing some species toward extinction.

The Center filed a petition to protect these threatened, misunderstood snakes in 2011. Because of that petition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged that the snake may warrant a place on the endangered species list, but the slaughter of rattlesnakes at "roundups" still continues today.

Please sign this petition asking communities to change their roundups to festivals where snakes are not hunted or killed. Several communities have already changed their roundups to wildlife-appreciation festivals, which generate important income for the communities and educate the public about the importance of saving native species, not slaughtering them.