There are NUMEROUS threads about this in other places where people are simply assuming that just because Norman Reedus has stated that the dead snake he held was indeed real, that they KILLED a snake on camera. This is just crazy to me. if you were to stab/cut off the head of a living snake, before the camera could cut away there would be a physical reaction from the remainder of the animal's body. In the scene, there is NOTHING. That animal was dead well before they ever shot this.

My thought, they used a living rattle snake up to the point where Daryl pins it down with a forked stick, then cut away and he stabs a snake that was already very dead.

Hollywood exploitation of animals is an obvious commonality and a huge problem, that's not the debate here. The debate is did they KILL an animal on purpose, on camera. I strongly believe they did not.