2,160 pounds of rattlesnakes captured

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SWEETWATER, Texas, March 11 (UPI) -- Participants in the annual, three-day Sweetwater Rattlesnake RoundUp in Texas caught more than a ton of snakes, organizers said.

More than 30,000 people attended the event, they said, with visitors including people from as far away as China, Israel, Germany, England and Australia..

The roundup paid $13-per-pound for captured rattlers, featured about 2,160 pounds of rattlesnakes being weighed, the most since the 2,168-pound total in 2010, the Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News reported Monday.

"The importance of this is to control the snake population and to inform the public," Texas Game Warden George Pasley said. "You see all these snakes here and you think there can't be many left in the wild, but there's plenty. We see rattlesnakes all the time. I have seen no shortage of rattlesnakes."

Kathleen and Darrell McIntyre of Childress won a $400 prize for capturing the longest snake. It measured 78 inches.