Re: [TruthTalk] Appalachian "snake handlers"??

[Terry Clifton]

ShieldsFamily wrote: Terry, So how do you profit from handling snakes? (I used to have a boss who I thought was a snake.  Turns out that was her Chinese Zodiac sign.  Almost made me believe in the Chinese Zodiac.) Izzy   This area has been blessed with an abundance of reptiles in all shapes and sizes.  Since I am a gunsmith, all the hunters know where I am.  Since most hunters are also fishermen, and fishermen, hunters and farmers are the ones most likely to come across snakes, I act as an agent , buying diamondback rattlesnakes and holding them for a man that comes by once a month and gets them from me.  He has a regular route, with pick up points like mine, all over the Southeastern states.  He  buys nothing but diamondback and Canebrake rattlers.  He says he buys an average of eighty thousand snakes each year.  He sells meat to restuarants, hides to boot companies, rattles to people who make ear rings and other junk jewelry, and I believe he sells the venom to someone else, but am not sure who.  Seems like it was something to do with medicine or research of some kind.  Not exciting or very profitable for me, but something interesting during the slow time of the year. As I wrote that, I just thought of one time when one of my customers got a little excited.  He had just seen a rattler cross the road about a mile from my place.  He whacked it's head off and threw it in the back of his pickup, then drove straight to me, so it was real fresh.  When he reached into the truck to get the snake for me, he grabbed it by the tail and started to lift it out.  In a split second, the snake struck him on the hand.  The snake having no head, no damage was done to his hand, so I had a big laugh when he jumped backwards about five feet.  I asked,"Did he get you?" He replied, "No, but he made me wet my pants!".  I thought that was kind of interesting.  I had up to then always figured that instinct was related to brain activity, but this snake was a mile from his brain and still functioned as he was programmed to do. Somebody 'splain that to me. Terry