Humane Society of the U.S.: The deadliest rattlesnake of all
by Richard Moore, Lakeland Times, May 28, 2010 [here]
Back when I was young and growing up in South Carolina, I was terrified of rattlesnakes, and so was everybody else I knew.
That’s because rattlesnakes are deadly.
In the South, they were everywhere. We had to be careful when we marched in the woods; we had to be careful when we played in our own back yard; our parents had to be careful when they tended flowers around the house.
Rattlesnakes were not only lethal - our neighbor across the street died after being bitten by a baby rattler - they were sneaky. They possess a natural camouflage skin tone that allows them to blend in easily with almost any surrounding.
A potential meal, or an unsuspecting taxpayer, can hardly see them, unless you’re on alert.
And so they sit on or just between rocks waiting for small mammals, not even bothering really to hide, or near berry bushes waiting for birds - and, of course, there’s always the story of the occasional human who didn’t see the snake, even though it was pretty much out in the open, and paid for the lack of awareness.
When I moved to Wisconsin, I was happy to discover there are relatively few snakes here, and even fewer rattlesnakes. There are a few timber rattlers around Devil’s Lake, I’m told, and in the southwestern part of the state, but for the most part we have been poisonous snake-free.
Until now.
Now here comes a different kind of rattlesnake slithering into Wisconsin: the Humane Society of the United States.
Many folks will probably be surprised to learn that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is a rattler (actually a collection of rattlers), but it is, and one of the deadliest of all vipers. … [more]