Plains garter snake found dead – victim of brutal stomping.

The arrows point to the injured area of the snake that led to its death.

I am always on the lookout for snakes – not because I fear them, but rather because I find them wonderful and amazing creatures.  I found one today, but not in the good way.  Some children were looking at what appeared to be a stick until I realized it was a dead snake.  They found it and brought it to a washroom/shower building at the main lake in Cypress Hills Provincial Park.

They wondered why it had died and there was some conjecture such as an animal did it, it was from natural causes, it was old.  But the tiny little bit of blood at the mouth and the odd way its neck was bent/dented told a different story.  It had been a victim of blunt trauma, likely from someone’s foot, and likely on purpose.

It is hard to know what happened for sure, but knowing that some people hate snakes and others are just plain mean, I can well imagine the chain of events.  The snake, trying to escape, was chased by the would-be assailant and was eventually crushed under the weight of their foot.  Although the head was intact, the broken neck resulted in paralysis and caused breathing to cease.  It wouldn’t be long before it lost consciousness and died and there would be no saving it.

The kids found the lifeless body and brought it to adults.  Yes, it was dead, and yes, someone did it deliberately (probably).  Is it any wonder that our planet is in such turmoil?  What we don’t destroy by our ignorance we do so out of malice and cruelty.  I would like to think that we can do better.  A lot better.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com