Tampa Tribune
April 22, 1939

"Rattlesnake meat is an epicurean [1] delight that should not be treated with levity",
said Mr. George K. End of Tampa Florida U.S.A.,
owner of the only Rattlesnake cannery in the world, when he admonished newspapermen
who visited his factory to jeer, and then stayed to enjoy the most poisonous.

They even agreed, when Mr. End added This meat is an hors d'œuvre [2] of the most delicate calibre,[3] is to be compared only with
caviare[4] and Pâté de foie gras."[5]

The fact that man bites snake really did make news
when he confessed that among epicures[6] all over the world to whom he had sent this delicacy
was the Duke of Windsor.

Of the twenty-six varieties of rattlesnake found in the southern states of North America,
it is the Great Eastern Diamond-backed rattler that is edible.

Largest of the rattlesnakes and with a bite more deadly than the Indian Cobra, their strike has been clocked at 175 MPH
it is found mainly near the Gulf of Mexico,
abounds in certain parts of Florida, where Mr. Ends workmen find and kill them to fill the cans.

With a quick jab of a forked stick they pin the snakes head to the ground and then, with lightning speed, grip the "rattler" behind the head.
Held thus, the terror is powerless, hangs limp in the hunters hand unable even to give a feeble rattle.

Snakes are then conveyed to Mr. Ends reptile farm where eventually they are killed at night and hung up to bleed before being cooked.
And there is no part of the reptile that is not utilized by the enterprising factory owner in his rattling good business.

Skulls and rattles are cleaned and sold as curios, venom milked from the snake before it is killed is solidified into crystals, and sold to chemists, who turn it into antidote, musk from which the snake gets it’s characteristic smell is used for manufacturing a delicate perfume, the skin is used for making belts, shoes, handbags and purses.

After that you eat what you can, and can what you can’t.

Mr. End believes that the delicate flavour of the rattlesnake meat is due to the fact that the rattlesnake eats only cottontail rabbits, and is one of nature’s cleanest creatures.

The Great Easturn Diamond-Backed rattlers, like the rest of their kind, are among the few creatures known to science not subject to any disease.

But their bite brings death to a human being in six (6) minutes, and has such a dynamic effect on a rabbit’s nerves that poor bunny leaps a foot into the air and falls dead.

So be careful the rattlesnake you eat is in a can, and not in one..

MENU