People like this should be locked up

[unspecified42]

Its ignorant for people to use fear as their basis for judgement on any topic.

As far as all pets go, should we kill pit bulls and rottweilers as they tend to be more aggressive (or so they are portrayed by television and movies), yet save everyones blue heelers because they are less likely to cause as much damage?

If you understand something entirely and know how it works, you have no reason to be scared of it. You can learn to respect the danger of a venomous snake and do what you can to avoid them. After all technically WE are the invasive species. Not them.

I personally know a half dozen people who have been bitten by the rattlesnakes here in New Mexico, and NONE have died. All were forced to seek immediate medical attention, but none died. And all of them were bitten because they were either stupid and messing with the snake, or because they accidentally stepped on it. Not the snakes fault, just its problem. And it took care of its problem the only way it knew how and used what it is equipped with.

What?

It's perfectly reasonable for people to use fear of injury or death to judge something if it's a valid concern! I have far more fear of black widows of brown recluses than I do of wolf spiders, and I would kill either of the former if I found them in my house while I routinely ignore the latter that I find everywhere. I'm a lot more afraid of the flu than I am of a cold, and I'm a lot more afraid of MRSA and VRE than I am of less resistant organisms.

Large dogs are not more aggressive, but they DO have the capacity to cause more harm and therefore should be treated with more caution. I don't think it's unreasonable to euthanize a large breed, aggressive dog if it is posing a risk to humans, and I don't think it's unreasonable to kill a snake that is posing a similar threat. I don't think anyone is advocating proactive slaughter of venomous snakes that are not posing a threat like you are suggesting with this analogy, though.

I'm surprised this was news, frankly. People around here routinely kill the hots in our area. It has never bothered me, really. Human life is more important to me than snake life. I would rather see a dead snake than an injured human. Bash if you want, but I figure the snake would be happier to see a dead human than injuring itself so I'm not sure why that's much different.

It's snake nature to protect itself. It's human nature to do the same.