Annual events known as rattlesnake roundups have taken place in many parts of the U.S. since the late 1920s. Participants capture thousands of rattlesnakes, other venomous snakes, and non-venomous snakes. Treatment of snakes is often cruel-both before the events when snakes are gathered far from where the roundups will take place and often kept for months without food and water, and during events when they are very roughly handled.
Snakes endure broken ribs and jaws, and many are slaughtered.
Beheading snakes, the method usually used to kill them, is a particularly inhumane way to kill these animals since snakes can remain conscious for many minutes or even hours after severing of the head from the body. These take place in Pennsylvania and involve native timber rattlesnakes. Some people close to these events say that snakes are often not returned to the localities where they were captured. The species is in decline throughout its range, so conservation efforts are hampered by roundups. Rattlesnake roundups originated to rid areas of animals deemed dangerous to human beings.