Las Vegas Valley pastor has a side gig—catching rattlesnakes

By Dani Masten and C.C. McCandless

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    LAS VEGAS, Nevada (KVVU) — When the sun comes out in the Las Vegas Valley, so do the rattlesnakes.

With temperatures now in the 90s, these snakes are looking for places to cool down. Sometimes, that can mean right in your back yard. But fear not—a full-time pastor at a local church helps catch rattlesnakes for free for people in the community.

Tim Agnello makes his snake-wrangling services available at no cost to anyone who needs assistance.

“I have been into snakes ever since I was a baby,” Agnello said. ”I was catching snakes since I was three years old.” He caught his first rattlesnake in 1975.

“When you are going to hold a rattlesnake in your hand and it’s rattling, that is kind of like really fun,” he explained. While Agnello enjoys catching snakes, it isn’t his only passion.

“I am a full-time pastor,” he said. “This is what I do full-time.” By day, Agnello preaches at the Mosaic Church in Henderson.

“Mosaic church here, we find creative ways to serve our community,” he said. “This was one way I could serve with my own skill set,” he added. He said that once the temperatures warmed up recently, he began receiving 3-4 snake calls per day. He handles the ones he catches in humane fashion.

“I find a place close by, within a mile,” he said. “I take it out into the desert and find a place that is suitable for it and then I let it go.”

He offered some things to look out for regarding the potential for finding snakes in your own yard. He said that they love bushes, shaded areas and sprinkler systems.

“You need rattlesnake fencing and here in this neck of the woods it only needs to be three feet high,” he stated. “The rattlesnakes here don’t get any larger than three feet.”

He implores everyone not to kill rattlesnakes if they find any.

“Rattlesnakes are a very important part of our ecosystem,” he said. “They keep rodent population down and so if we are taking something out of our ecosystem, it then puts the ecosystem off balance.”

He says if you need any help, give him a call.

“If you find a snake in your yard, don’t panic,” Agnello said. “Give us a call and we will come out and keep you safe and your dog safe and we will relocate the snake.”

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