An ignorant moron catches a rattlesnake

I was at home Sunday evening prior to going in to work. I get a text message from my boss saying there's a timber rattler in a barrel outside my control room and asked if I wanted it.
Knowing if I said no, I would most likely be dooming the snake to a short life of poking and prodding torment until the novelty wore off then killed, I said yes I'd take it.
My plan was to relocate it back to the wild somewhere around where it was apparently caught, about a half hour from me.

I get to work and ease the lid off the 55 gallon barrel. Inside was a 30 inch or so beautiful yellow timber rattler. I thought to myself that snake's head doesn't look right, but it was somewhat dark in the barrel so I got a flashlight.
With it I discovered that the snake had it's head wrapped in electrical tape.
I was immediately furious that someone would do this to a snake, obviously so they could pass it around and tell themselves they were manly men with no risk of injury to themselves.

I don't actually know who caught the snake, it passed through two other people before coming to me, but as I later told my boss, whoever did that should be kicked in the balls.

I took the snake inside and tried to examine the extent of the situation. The tape was covering it's eyes and nostrils, and completely circled the head. One fang was actually through the tape and it was stuck to his gums in places.

Rotating between pulling the tape little by little and running water over his head to soften the glue, after about 30 minutes I finally got it off him.
I managed not to tear the skin or damage his eyes, and he got to keep his fangs, but he lost the scales across his snout between the eyes and the nostrils. His mouth was askew and wouldn't close right.

He's dehydrated and malnourished, and with the scale injury I didn't want to risk infection so I took him home and set him up in a quarantine cage outside the snake room.
Besides having no interest in food yet, he seems to be doing OK. His mouth has reset and seems to be working fine, so he just needs to heal.

It just infuriates me that people can do something like that to an animal and think absolutely nothing of it just because it's a snake.
I may not condone it, but I can at least understand the needless killing of a snake out of fear, but to torture one by taping it's head over isn't done out of fear, it's just plain cruelty for their own amusement.

I sincerely hope that the next time he attempts to tape a rattler's head he gets bitten. Not a fatal bite, I don't wish him dead, I just wish him some excruciating pain as karmic retribution for his actions.

Good for you, for taking all that time to unwrap its head so carefully, and yes, whoever did that is a moron.

Ive picked up several with vise-grips latched to them and they faired well after a weeks rest and a nice live feeder,fed again after a week and released Im sure they turned out fine.
Good Job D!

Dude, you rock.

Something I read about extricating a snake caught in a glue trap is that vegetable/cooking oil will soften the glue so the tape can be removed.

For future knowledge... keep a jar of creamy peanut butter handy! Use it to help release the sticky glue. Rub it in between skin and tape with a q-tip.. wait a few minutes, peel back tape as far as it will go... repeat process. I've successfully used that on hatchling snakes that have been brought to me that had become trapped in glue traps.. and in one case, where a snake got stuck in duct tape that was being used to catch cave crickets. It's mostly the oil in the peanut butter that is reacting to the glue, so you could also use pure olive or coconut oil but that could possibly clog up nostrils too easily as it's harder to control where it goes than peanut butter (if working around the head). The other nice thing about the peanut butter is that it's easier to clean off the snake than pure oil.

Nice job Clay. I just cannot understand why any human would torture any animal.

I think of ignorance as a lack of awareness, but common sense says that they wouldn't like having tape wrapped all around their head, eyes, and nose, so what makes them think it'd be any easier on a creature just a fraction of their size? You don't have to like snakes to give them the same respect every animal deserves. I think this kind of wildlife abuse takes cruelty and stupidity more ignorance, and I don't doubt that the poor guy would have been killed if you hadn't rescued him.
Your time and effort truly does mean his whole world Clay, I'm glad that he wound up in your care and I hope he does well~