Rattling Cages

Some people golf. Some people fish. Some people collect stamps. Dale Burton spends his free time studying and caring for rattlesnakes.

A A A Comments By Terry Greene Sterling Thursday, Jun 4 1998

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When the talk is over, someone tells Burton that the kids might eat rattlesnake that night for dinner. After all, it's a desert survival class.

"Well of course they didn't tell me that," says Burton.

It's a cool evening as Dale Burton strikes out for one of his snake-releasing hideaways near Phoenix.

Burton is on a mission to free Murray, a Western Diamondback who somehow got trapped in an attic in a recently built house in north Scottsdale. Burton figures Murray was dozing on building materials and accidentally got transported into the attic.

The young rattler had survived without food or water for months.
He loads him into a plastic container with a handle and airholes. He drives far away from the city.

In the last light of the day, he carries the rattlesnake to an arroyo and releases him beneath a paloverde tree heavy with yellow blossoms.

The snake coils up by a log, flicks his tongue out to get a read on where he is.

Burton is quiet.
"I always say a prayer for the snakes I release," he says. "I ask the Lord to take care of that particular animal. Of course, he may get eaten, but that's just the way it is."

Crickets are singing. Murray takes cover beneath a log as Burton heads up the sandy wash.

Contact Terry Greene Sterling at 229-8437, or online at tgreene@newtimes.com