Unfortunately there will always be those ignorant people who think that they are superior to "lesser" animals and have the right to do what they want with them. At least there are also people like you and all of us here that have the respect and knowledge to allow these animals the lives that they deserve.

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

sometimes you have to interfear though.

few years ago when I was living in a small city, i had a cat that spent one summer catching garter snakes in the back yard. over the summer he caught atleast 10 of em total, most of them young, under a foot long. most were still alive when I saw the cat playing with them. found a few that were dead. the ones that were alive were lethargic and injured with bite holes and scratches from the cat. i brought them inside and set up a 10 gal tank for them with dirt, leaves, sticks, and other things from outside to make them feel like they were at home and mostly left them alone. took them to a park and let them go after a few weeks when they got better.

it was nice having them and nursing them back to health. but wild snakes are too wild to keep as pets.
i'll still catch an occasional snake in the park to look at it for a few mins though.

It definatly sucks that the snake would pay for what it did because it's deemed "dangerous". Im going to pull from what an amazing comedian once said(he was talking about a tiger, but anyways) That snake didn't go crazy and attack anyone, it went SNAKE. Crazy for a snake is being in a shoebox and flung around by some kid.

Haha... Tell that to my Banded California King, Chewbacca.

I caught him as a three-foot adult, and he never bit or musked or anything. He was eating three thawed fuzzies a week after I got him, and is very tame when held. Sometimes I wonder if he's mentally "disabled" or if he was an escaped pet, because I've heard that wild kings can be hard to tame. Even my captive-bred king isn't nearly as tame as he is.

I'm not completely against collecting wild snakes, but I feel that it should always be done responsibly. That means it needs to be done legally (around here you need a fishing license), and only common snakes that do well in captivity should be collected. I've caught tons of snakes (mostly Sharp-Tailed Snakes, Garters, and Ringnecks), but I've only kept one.