Thousands of Rattlesnakes Will Soon Be Killed for Entertainment Purposes

Every year, several people living in parts of Alabama, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas get together and try to figure out who caught the most rattlesnakes throughout the course of the past 12 months.

This peculiar competition is referred to as the Rattlesnake Round-up, and it more often than not translates into thousands of such reptiles being abused and slaughtered.

“Rattlesnake roundups are contests calling for hunters to bring in as many snakes as they can catch in a year, at which point the snakes are slaughtered and sold for skin and meat,” reads the official website for a petition whose goal is to put an end to this practice.

Conservationists now hope that, by raising at least 2,000 signatures, they will be able to convince people taking part in this competition that their deeds are quite likely to bring the species on the brink of extinction.