By John Vincent
On Further Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve seen several people weigh in about the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife\u2019s ab\u00acsurd plan to introduce rattlesnakes into an area where they\u2019ve been eradicated for generations \u2014 this area \u2014 and I want to add my venom to the pot of those saying that this is completely ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s obvious there are people working for the state who have nothing better to do than to think up ways to kill us and protect those who can\u2019t protect themselves \u2014 like rattlesnakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh yeah, they\u2019re venomous snakes. They can protect themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, I guess it\u2019s being seriously suggested that rattlesnakes be brought in to live on an island at the Quabbin Reservoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That probably sounds like a faraway, isolated place to people from Boston, but it\u2019s actually about 20 miles from here, a half-hour drive.
And people do live in these here parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know most people in Boston think this area is \u201cWhere there be trees,\u201d but people actually live in the Gardner area, and that includes Templeton and Phillipston and Petersham, which are even closer to our new friends, the snakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Heywood Hospital\u2019s new Quabbin Retreat in Petersham, we could probably use this to test the effectiveness of the medical system, possibly changing the name to the Quabbin Retreat and Rattlesnake Triage Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But seriously, beside a few recovering addicts and some \u201chicks from the sticks,\u201d who\u2019s really going to be in danger of getting bitten? Nature nuts? They just love a good \u201cI almost died from a rattlesnake\u201d story. We could probably start charging admission to the Quabbin Reservoir just so people can try harassing the snakes and see whether they live to tell about it. I\u2019ve seen a lot of that on TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plus, I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever seen the video they have online of a bald eagle battling a rattlesnake, but that was some seriously great entertainment. How could you be opposed to that? And the Quabbin Reservoir already has bald eagles \u2026 I\u2019m just saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The people from Fisheries and Wildlife have all said that these wimps who don\u2019t want rattlesnakes are clearly overreacting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just petrified of snakes,\u201d one person said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, sorry for wanting to live. No one wants to go out for a walk and get bitten by a rattlesnake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that there are about 8,000 venomous snake bites a year in the United States, and only five or so people die a year. So if that\u2019s not you, what are you complaining about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know my sister used to go hiking out at the Quabbin Reservoir. She always wanted me to go, too, so she could take me to Soapstone Mountain, which was evidently a place where you could pick up loose bits of soapstone that you could then later carve into interesting shapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That sounded like a fun thing to do. But not anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s really not worth risking my life over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m going to say that before they go ahead and drop a bunch of rattlesnakes in our neck of the woods, maybe we should hold a vote and see how many people actually want the snakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then we can have another vote on how many people actually want the snakes who go around telling us what\u2019s good for us out here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This column ran in The Gardner News on 3\/11\/2016.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By John VincentOn Further Review I\u2019ve seen several people weigh in about the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife\u2019s ab\u00acsurd plan to introduce rattlesnakes into an area where they\u2019ve been eradicated for generations \u2014 this area \u2014 and I want to add my venom to the pot of those saying that this is completely ridiculous. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","hide_page_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinionpieces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}