I might have screamed like a little girl when I ran over a copperhead on my mtn bike last Saturday. Fortunately I was alone in the woods, so no one would have been around to hear me. If I had screamed, that is, which I obviously didn't, due to the lack of witnesses.

Venomous snakes in the yard or in camp need to go. Otherwise live and let live.

Invasive species are a different matter.

there was a woman fishing in tiber resevoir(n.central mt) recentally and had a big rattler crawl into her boat and bit one of her dogs and almost killed it. i won't go out of my way to kill a snake, but it'd be go time if its swimming towards the boat.

It seems (in my lifetime anyway) that when it comes to snakes,(venomous or not), the general consensus among most people has been to simply kill it. I suppose it has something to do with the serpent of the Bible in the Garden of Eden. I guess if it had been a kitty cat that convinced Eve to eat that apple, there would be a lot fewer feral cats out there to deal with. The other factor would be, the fear we all have of being killed, via teeth, claws, or poison, has driven us to basically kill off everything that could be a threat to us. Enter the endangered species list. I know that my views have changed as I have gotten older. I will admire a poisonous snake from a distance, but walk around it and leave it be. He's here for a reason, same as Bears, Mountain Lions, Wolves and Great White Sharks.

Glad to see that most of us “sportsmen” give the snakes, poisonous or not, the benefit of the doubt and let them be. I’ve got a healthy respect for them but I have only killed a handful of snakes in my life and even then it was out of safety concerns. I find it much cooler to know that something so wild, prehistoric, an unchanged hunter for the last what… million and some years inhabits the wilds of the areas I hunt in or frequent.

If I seen it swimming in the lake I would just leave it. Snakes can send shivers down my spine. I know they are good to keep rodents away, so I leave them alone. If a venomous snake was around the house, I would kill it, but out in the wild I leave them alone.

Some venomous snakes such as the timber rattler are protected here in Illinois.

Snakes don't bother me, & I don't bother them.
Now if he bites me, then yea- he's going down.

If anyone has read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road", there's some pretty eerie passages in there about burning snakes in gasoline that come to mind and weird me out.

But to answer the question, I think killing a venomous snake should only be in danger situations, for yourself or your pets/animals; otherwise I don't see any ethical reason to do so.

I hate snakes with an every loving passion.
Ever since I was a kid I can remember old timers and friends of my father giving me rattlesnake buttons.
Last summer I had the privilege to kill a 4 1/2 foot rattlesnake that had 13 buttons. He was in my yard and we have plenty of dogs/cats and I have a big family, including a son. Not to mention all of our company we have visiting. Like I do with all good Lookin snakes I kill, I skinned him and tanned it and he's now hanging on my wall alongside my first set of antlers just above the rest of my rattlesnake buttons.
I have a video on YouTube of me skinning it. Will post as soon as I can get the URL, if anyone is interested that is?

I like snakes. The only time I kill any snake is if it's somewhere close to where people live, particularly kids, or if I can't shoo them away from where I need to be (usually, you can get them out of there with a handy stick, though). Otherwise, they have as much right to be where ever they are as I do and I'll go around.

Though the venom is potent, Timber Rattlesnakes are, frankly, the puppydogs of the rattlesnake world. That's not to say they won't defend themselves if you try to catch them (or of course attack them-- small difference to the snake); females also will defend new-borns. Which puts them on a par with about every other land vertebrate.

I've worked with them in KS for years, and relocated many that were too close to homes for their own good. If they're a problem near a house, several local landowners use a shovel to slide them into a trash barrel, then haul them off a few miles to similar wooded habitats. You create far more danger blasting away next to a house than the snake does eating mice or chipmunks attracted to your bird feeder seed.

They're pretty cool animals really. If you want more info, email me: gpisani@ku.edu

I shoot them on sight.

While playing baseball in the backyard many years ago a snake chased our rightfielder (who was screaming like a freshly castrated pig) out of the park. A quick trip to the tool shed and a shovel made quick work of the serpent. That is the last snake I can recall killing. It was 1970 something.

I might poke a snake with a stick out of childish curiousity but not kill it.

For the record, although I do hate snakes, I'm not trying to hold it as a trophy or being proud of killing this snake. What I do keep it for and what I am proud of is this: I keep it as a sign of remembrance of this remarkable creature and to keep it's beauty in tact. I am proud that there was a potential life threatening snake at my house that could've easily taken out a family member and I was able to prevent this and protect my family.

several venomous snakes get the chop each year when the decide to venture in to my barn, porch,home or immediate yard. Out side of my immediate residence they get left alone!

if it's close enough to bite me and i can't avoid it, i kill it. around the house, i kill it. swimming in a pond, i leave it alone.

I will generally let snakes and other critters go unless they are a real threat to me or my property. My wife is deathly afraid of snakes, but I won't kill them just because she is afraid of them.

In Pa you can purchase a rattlesnake tag and I have been considering buying one. I remember eating rattle snake when i was younger and it being very good. I cant remember if they are awarded through via drawing or can be purchased over the counter.
I remember eating rattle snake when i was younger and it being very good.

I hate snakes.. Well let me refraze that I am teriffied of snakes. They scare the hell out of me. If I stepped over one my hunting buddys would have thought I was back in Iraq with the amount of gun fire going off. I wouldn't go out to intentionally kill one, and if it was far enough away from me he would be fine because I would be heading the other way, as fast as my little feet could move. So I would have to say I wouldn't kill one just because it was venomous, mainly because I would be running the other way.
But what about a non native snake like a python in Florida? Would you kill it then?

I wont be the last to say that snakes give me the creeps. But they do kill many rodents that could potentially carry diseases. If a snake poses a threat to me, I see it as a justified kill. Unless a nest is beneath my home I dont see why they have the right to the woods as I do. Now wolves, that's another topic entirely.. They are more predatory than snakes.