Diamondbacks around the FLDS compund
Susan Roesgen
360° Correspondent
Nearly 2000 acres of scrub grass and cactus and little yellow wildflowers....
Texas hill country....windy, hot, dry.
I heard a rattle in the grass about five yards away and now I'm standing perfectly still.
I know what that sound is.
This place looks like my family's backyard in Montana. That sound is a rattlesnake.
I don't know whether to walk forward or backward, and I've wandered too far from the rest of the crew to yell.
My Dad beat a rattler to death with a rake in our garage once, and my high school boyfriend killed one with a golf club after it bit his hand on the 18th hole.
We used to carry snake-bite kits with us always-basically a razor blade we were told to make an "x" across the bite with–then a piece of plastic tubing to use as a tourniquet–and finally we were told to "suck out the poison."
Rattlesnakes move fast... A rattlesnake's strike is usually completed in less than half a second.
and they scare me.
FLDS trucks fly past on this little two lane road outside the ranch–would they stop if I tried to wave? How many of the FLDS children have been bitten here?
Is this their Zion–their Eden–home to an accursed snake?
This place is full of them.
|
|
Filed under: Susan Roesgen |
About this Show:
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°
Subscribe to the podcast
On Twitter
Search the AC360 blog
The rattlesnakes are the only witnesses to what goes on out there apparently. I do not understand why children who are cutoff from normal social interactions are not checked periodically to see if they are safe, properly socialized. A child could be fodder for the snakes, and who would know?
Anderson i love your show, however your questions to your expert about barack obama seems very biased and leading to your viewer, how about more indepth coverage of hilary clinton and bill's coments.
also lanny davis is very quick to link barack to comments about rev wright and at the same time trying to praised clinton while ignoring her comments and you and your moderators just let him continue to blab away. this is a completely turn off.
Hmpf.
Rattlesnake bites are very rarely lethal.
Those old kits like the one you describe are actually worse than the bite itself.
Besides, rattlesnake is good eatin'.
FYI: The "old school" snakebite kits require you to use your mouth to suction out the blood and venom from the bite. The kits used now include a small suction cup so suctioning by mouth is no longer necessary.
Here in the Southwest, rattlesnake festivals are very popular. My family does to one of those every year and there is another family that always goes with us. The festival is in New Mexico and is referred to as the "Rattlesnake Roundup."
Here is where it gets interesting....my mother and the guy (the father/husband of the family that goes with us) always have a competition to see who can "round up" a set amount of rattlesnakes by hand the fastest. Yes, with bare hands! When they do this the respective spouses (my father and the mother/wife of the other family) watch with awe and horror. We kids prefer not to look and we all try to dissuade them from grabbing the snakes, but it never works. Neither my mother nor the guy has ever been bit and my mother usually wins.
Have you ever tasted snake? I have and it tastes like chicken- really.
Poisonous snakes and poisonous religions seems to go together.
Susan
First I hope you got away from that snake. Second, I read Carolyn Jessop's book Escape over the weekend and probably the real rattlesnakes in that compound are the men and the overriding specter of Warren Jeffs. And these human rattlesnakes are just as deadly and fear provoking as the reptile variety.
Annie Kate
Birmingham AL
Susan: I don't know what's freaking me out more, the fact that you had to deal with rattlesnakes in your family's backyard or that you were 5 yards away from one near the FLDS ranch. I can handle a few garden snakes here and there but rattlesnacks? You are a brave woman!
Take Care!
Jolene, St. Joseph, MI