Snakes in Lake Providence may soon be able to breathe a little bit easier.
A rule change proposed by Louisiana's Wildlife and Fisheries Commission would prohibit events such as the Lake Providence Snake Rodeo, in which teams of boaters aim to kill as many snakes as they can.
The new rule, which was published after the commission's Dec. 7 meeting, is now open for public comment until March 5, 2024. In addition to a host of new regulations around the collection, handling and treatment of reptiles and amphibians, it contains a provision that would ban events that "wantonly or willfully waste native amphibians or reptiles."
Pending any further commission or legislative objections, the rule will go into effect after March 5.
The snake rodeo in Lake Providence, a town of about 4,000 people on the Mississippi border in extreme northeast Louisiana, goes as far back as at least the 1960s, though it isn't held every year. The most recent was in 2022.
During the rodeo, teams with two shotguns per boat head onto Lake Providence to shoot as many snakes as they can over a five-hour period. There are no restrictions on the type or size of the snake, just that it be dead when they bring it back to be measured. In 2022, there were prizes for most snakes and longest snake.
East Carroll Parish Sheriff Wydette Williams, whose office organizes the event, said last year that he organized the event because complaints about snakes by residents who live around the lake had grown.
Williams did not respond Friday to a message seeking comment.
Biologists and conservationists, however, have long called for the event to be canceled or at least turned into a no-kill event, which some other snake roundups around the country have done. They note that in Lake Providence, the vast majority of the snakes killed are diamondback water snakes, which are not venomous and are key to keeping down pest populations and culling weak or sick fish from the lake.
In 2019, 88 of the 134 snakes killed in the rodeo were diamondback water snakes and only 22 were venomous cottonmouths, according to numbers from the Advocates for Snake Preservation.
The tradition of a day to kill snakes is known around the country. Perhaps most famously, some events are called "roundups" and the meat is eaten and the skins used. The tradition was even lampooned in a 1993 episode of The Simpsons that referenced the local "Whacking Day."