RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. — If you spot a rattlesnake in your yard what would you do? In this Zevely Zone, 'The Snake Wranglers' offer a training session to firefighters and me.
The best way to save a snake is to learn how to handle the real thing.
"I truly feel they are the underdog in nature," said Bruce Ireland. For years, Bruce has been on a one-man crusade saving snakes.
"You don't have to kill them. You may not know that much about snakes because you may not understand them and yes some of them are dangerous, but that doesn't mean we should go out and indiscriminately kill them," said Bruce.
Shedding that outdated belief led Bruce to create The Snake Wranglers.
"To get to the point where we are finally, actually training firefighters, I can't even sleep at night building up to this if I'm being really honest with you," said Bruce.
Twenty-one volunteers are now showing firefighters the new skill of safely putting rattlesnakes into protective buckets for relocation.
Even if snakes make your skin crawl, snakes are an important part of the eco-system.
"Almost all of them are exclusively rodent eaters," said Bruce. "To be really honest rodents carry a lot more deadly disease than the snakes do."
For those thinking firefighters have enough on their plates fighting fires.
"Firefighter safety is always a priority when we go on any call," said Battalion Chief Jim Mickelson from the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District. He then added his firefighters were willing to add rattlesnakes to their dangerous to do list.
"The way we've been conducting business in the past shall I say doesn't not really fulfill our commitment to protecting the environment, so it took some time and buy in from my fire chief, but I'm very thankful for that, but we are able to develop a policy that allows us to safely capture snakes of all kinds transport them back to the fire station and then call The Snake Wranglers who we are partnering with and they will relocate them back out into the environment away from people and their homes," said Battalion Chief Mickelson.
Bruce told the crew if they ever see something outrageous like a five-foot snake wrapped around a dog's snout (which really did happen) they can call The Snake Wranglers directly for help, but with this training, firefighters can handle most any call.
"Big snake, head goes in first he rattles a little bit," said Bruce. I asked him if training like this could spread nationwide.
"Our hope is that this is exactly what happens," said Bruce. Firefighters are heroes, but even Bruce was impressed with their courage to face a new danger.
"These are live, wild rattlesnakes that some of these guys have never faced and they are facing them and they are doing it with bravery," said Bruce.
So when firefighters asked me to face a rattlesnake myself. "How are you doing sir? Did someone call the Zevely Zone? What do you have on your hands here?" I said. I buried my own fear and wrangled a rattlesnake too. "Nice and easy into the bucket," I said.
Bruce then added, "This is a snake safe space."
Firefighters plan to leave a business card with homeowners, so the next time homeowners see a snake they can call The Snake Wranglers first. To learn more about the free service visit snake-wranglers.com.
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