Lizzie Chen for NPR
This is my first experience, and every Miss Texas has to experience it. … I am a city girl from Houston, Texas. This is obviously an experience for me. I am terrified of snakes, but the Jaycees make everything more comfortable.
Lizzie Chen for NPR
We live in their country, and we know what to do … when we come upon a rattlesnake. I am a snake handler, and I do the research here at the research pit. We sex them, we weigh them.
Lizzie Chen for NPR
Honestly, I try to avoid [the roundup] like the plague because I am a local, but he’s never been because the town gets crazy. It’s very small this year with the virus going around.
Lizzie Chen for NPR
I was one of those little kids looking through that glass of the snake pit and I would see my dad.
Lizzie Chen for NPR
I started catching rattlesnakes when I was about 10 years old. It’s more than a tradition. We are in a very unique part of the state; rattlesnakes are a way of life here. We are not trying to eradicate rattlesnakes — we teach people to live around them.