WHICH MAKES ST. PATRICK THE HITLER OF HIS DAY

Man faces jail for killing rattler in self-defense: 'I'm stunned that the snake had more rights than a human being'
(WorldNetDaily.com, May 3, 2003)

A Michigan man who killed a poisonous snake he says was threatening nearby children has been found guilty of "killing a protected reptile or amphibian without a state permit" and faces a possible jail
sentence, reports the Ann Arbor News.

Convicted of killing the rattlesnake during an afternoon outing Aug. 9 with his two sons and their friend at Pickeral Lake northwest of Ann Arbor, 47-year-old James Galloway says he was protecting
nearby children and himself, according to the report.

Galloway said he wasn't aware that it is a crime in Michigan to kill the Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake, Michigan's only venomous snake.

The six-member jury convicted Galloway after being confronted by the prosecution with the plastic-wrapped, frozen, decapitated snake as evidence. [...]

"I'm stunned that the snake had more rights than a human being," said Galloway.

Having done fieldwork in the Permian Basin of West Texas, let me just say this: to see a rattlesnake is to want it dead and if there's a means available to kill it, any normal human being will do so. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 8, 2003 6:02 PM