Hisssss! Hisssss! Boom!... is what most people hear right before a rattlesnake’s head is chopped off. Now here’s my question, do these innocent creatures that people fear for no absolute reason deserve to die? No one has the right to decide whether or not an animal lives or perishes. A rattlesnake roundup is an event usually hosted in Western parts of the United States like Texas where people slaughter thousands of defenseless rattlesnakes. In fact, these rattlesnakes are classified as defenseless because they have their fangs pulled out with special tools and their venom drained for “scientific research.” Rattlesnake roundups have been apart of Western culture for almost a century. Strangely enough,this traditional event moves on with families …show more content…
By killing thousands and thousands of snakes every year, its population is decreasing extremely quickly. These snakes are being killed and hunted by the use of torturous methods. According to article 3, “collection methods include spraying gasoline into the snakes' hiding places and using poles tipped with fish hooks to extract snakes.” This piece of evidence provides you with an image of the gruesome torture that the snakes go through. Furthermore, the people that run the rattlesnake roundups argue that society is benefiting from their event because it provides scientists with fresh samples. According to the video, rattlesnakes lose all capability of being used for research when influenced by gasoline or toxic gases. The rattlesnakes are just being slaughtered for no absolute reason. Furthermore, these snakes are being physically tortured. According to the video, the narrator explained how a snake’s fangs are taken out with pliers and its venom drained into a cup. Some states may not have strict animal cruelty laws, but the federal law prohibits the torture of most animals including …show more content…
Children shouldn’t witness such a terrible thing at such a young age. According to text 3, at one roundup, handlers in the slaughtering area allowed children to touch the tails of restrained rattlesnakes, which were then brought to the block for decapitation. The handlers then displayed the still-beating hearts of the snakes to the children.” This quote from article 3 displays some of the horrible things children witness at these roundups. Moreover, children are being taught that these animals are stupid and extremely dangerous. In text 3, it states,"He's too stupid to know he's dead!" This piece of evidence shows how leaders of rattlesnake roundups influence the youth in a not so good way. The parents of the children attending are forcing these innocent children to participate in these events. In article 2, it states,"She has to see it in order to believe it," Delbosque says. "I want her to know that only professionals play with these snakes." the child’s mother hopes to teach her daughter about these unique creatures, but she is actually teaching her daughter about the joy that comes from slaughtering these
Common Name: Burmese Python Scientific Name: Python Molurus Bivittatus I. Introduction One of the five largest species of snakes in the world is now finding a home in the Florida Everglades. The Burmese python has a dark colored eye-catching patterned skin and is known for its calm and relaxed temperament. Because of the attractiveness of their skin pattern and docile nature, it is one of the large snakes of choice among reptile owners. Unfortunately, these snakes can reach huge lengths and weigh upwards of 200lbs making them difficult to keep. As carnivores, Burmese pythons kept as pets need a diet of small rodents or rabbits.
This shows how humans being cruel to those innocent animals, killing them for their own
“The Rattler” explores the conflicts between man and nature that seem inescapable. The narrator is taking a walk through the desert when he comes across a rattlesnake. After some thought, he decides to kill it and proceeds to violently slaughter it with a hoe. The snake fights back when provoked, but fails. The author makes the reader feel sympathy towards the snake and empathy towards the man through the personality of the snake, the point of view of the man, and the language and details regarding the setting.
The effect the reader perceives in the passage of Rattler is attained from the usage of the author¡¯s imagery. The author describes the pre-action of the battle between the man and the snake as a ¡°furious signal, quite sportingly warning [the man] that [he] had made an unprovoked attack, attempted to take [the snake¡¯s] life... ¡± The warning signal is portrayed in order to reveal the significance of both the man¡¯s and the snake¡¯s value of life. The author sets an image of how one of their lives must end in order to keep the world in peace. In addition, the author describes how ¡°there was blood in [snake¡¯s] mouth and poison dripping from his fangs; it was all a nasty sight, pitiful now that it was done.¡± This bloody image of snake¡¯s impending death shows the significance of the man¡¯s acceptance toward the snake. In a sense, the reader can interpret the man¡¯s sympathy toward the snake because of the possibility that he should have let him go instead of killing him.
The snake was not aware of the man’s intentions was cautious but not yet preparing for an attack. The rattlesnake “lay ridged” through its mistrust of the man did not feel threatened so his “body was undulant” not preparing for an attack. Because of its natural instincts the snake was wary of the man’s presence but did not feel provoked enough to set up a defense. The usual instincts would have been to give a strong attack but choose not to do so. Still attentive to the man’s possible actions, the snake presents him with a warning for both their sake. Therefore as the man raised his weapon the snake set up its rattling and “shook his fair but furious signal” warning the man he “made an unprovoked attack”. The snake had not planned on attacking the man so instead of reacting swiftly the snake had given the man a warning. By doing so the snake shows its value of life because he left the man chance in avoiding an outcome with death for either side. Consequently having misjudged the man’s intent it is left with little time to protect itself from an unexpected attack. With the man suddenly attacking the snake with a hoe it “struck passionately” until it “was soon dead”. As a result of not being able to assemble an attack the snake is left with it’s only chance of winning by striking hard but with ineffective moves. Thus readers feel sympathy for the snake because it had not called for an attack that would have taken either
The story is written in a moralistic tone. After defeating the first snake, Karait, he could indulge and eat his kill or all the food offered that night as a reward, but he instead ate a light dinner because he knew there were more cobras to fight so he didn’t want to be slowed down. “That bite paralyzed Karait, and Rikki-tikki was just going to eat him up from the tail to the head, after the custom of his family, when he remembered that a big meal makes a slow mongoose” (Kippling 16). The tone of that passage suggests that this anti-gluttony attitude is one the reader should also take up when necessary. Many asp...
Kellerman, Jonathan. Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children. New York: The Ballantine Publishing Group, 1999. Print.
This book is appropriate for three-to-five years of age children as the story is very engaging and children are exposed to the Aboriginal culture. The book is illustrated in oil paint in impressionism and the whole story is in double-page illustration, which shows the landscape of Cape York and Aboriginal people. The pictures use vibrant colours including forest green and many shades of brown and the kangaroos and the snake people have red eyes. Educators can guide children to discuss the information in the image which can help children to understand how these details support meaning construction (Spence, 2004). For example, educators can tell children that the kangaroos and snake people who have red eyes reveal that they are evil, so that children can understand that adding more details in both writing and speaking can provide more information for audiences and the explicit language is very effective in constructing the meaning. Educators can use toy snakes and toy kangaroos and other materials to retell the story with children or make a small display that shows part of the
“The Rattler” is a story that is written by Donald Beattie that expresses a survival and protective tone to persuade readers to side with the man that killed the snake in order to protect a larger community of animals and humans. Beattie is presenting the story to a large group of people in attempt to persuade them. Beattie uses imagery, simile, and pathos to develop a root of persuasion and convince the audience to reanalyze the man’s actions.
The comparison of the rattlesnake to a bigger, more frightening, and yet less deadly creature makes the former seem dangerous. While a blacksnake would “flee at the sight of a man”, the rattler proved its fearlessness with the way he “held his ground”. The rattler is cocky, and for good reason, because his poison could kill the man much easier than the theoretical blacksnake could. The man is in a life-threatening situation and the reader is likely to sympathize with his fear and worry. The author uses violent diction when describing the snake to make us see him as a vicious creature, in need of killing to keep others safe. Even dead, the rattler “may still bite”. He needs to be kept as far as possible from people - especially vulnerable people, such as young children - in order to protect them. The author includes this hostile wording to bring awareness to the fact that the snake is remorseless, even in death, and that taking its life is noble and just. Finally, the snake’s “little song of death” is personified negatively by the man to show that the snake is the villain in the story. Life is, according to the rattlesnake, “dear and would be dearly sold”. It comes to light in this phrase that the snake is looking for revenge from the man’s actions. The rattler is not as innocent as he may have initially seemed. As he attempts at the man’s life to bring
Maker, J., Brittain, J., Piraino, G., & Somtow, S. Children Who Kill. World Press Review. June 1993 v40 n6 p21-23.
Animals and humans are very different, but one thing we have in common is the fact that we can both feel emotions and comprehend the world in a different perspective. Professor Peter Singer says, “The fundamental issue in determining how we may treat animals is whether they suffer and that the pains of animals and humans deserve equal considerations.” Vertebrates, also know as animals with a backbone, have the same nerves that humans have to feel pain. We have a moral obligation to animals to protect their rights as creatures of this earth and members of our modern day society. Animals have a life full of love and contentment, by torturing them we are denying them that right.
Ménez, Andre’. The Subtle Beast: Snakes, from Myth to Medicine. New York, New York: CRC Press, 2003.
Every year, over 100 million animals are killed for experimentation, biology lessons, medical/military training, and cosmetic, drug, and chemical testing. Animals are tortured all over the world and still lack lawful protection.
... Nature, including human beings, is `red in tooth and claw'; we are all `killers' in one way or another. Also, the fear which inhabits both human and snake (allowing us, generally, to avoid each other), and which acts as the catalyst for this poem, also precipitates retaliation. Instinct, it seems, won't be gainsaid by morality; as in war, our confrontation with Nature has its origins in some irrational `logic' of the soul. The intangibility of fear, as expressed in the imagery of the poem, is seen by the poet to spring from the same source as the snake, namely the earth - or, rather, what the earth symbolizes, our primitive past embedded in our subconsciouness. By revealing the kinship of feelings that permeates all Nature, Judith Wright universalises the experience of this poem.