Animals: Rattle Racket

The Wisconsin Legislature last week passed a bill requiring that, to collect the State’s bounty of 50¢ per rattlesnake, snake-hunters must produce not only the rattle but at least one-half of the rattlesnake. Occasion for the measure was a racket: hunters were cutting off rattles, turning snakes loose to grow more. More dangerous than rattling rattlesnakes are de-rattled, silent rattlesnakes.