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I have seen a venom er where they brought the snake (in two halves mind you) with them in the helicopter for identification.
As most of you are well aware (and certainly know better than I do) there are various species of rattler in Southern California...and they cannot be treated the same due to different types of venom.
While I would never advocate killing anything you are not going to use as food (except mosquitos) sometimes it is deemed necessary to aid in the victims (I also use this word loosely...most strikes are provoked in one way or another...some much more deliberate than others) attempted recovery. If none of the people attending the scene can make a positive ID...SOMEONE must in most situations...and since time is critical in an envenomation...the best way to do that is kill the snake and bring it with.
Even the doctor the show is based around made it clear he was disappointed to see this particular snake killed, but sometimes it is a critical part of saving the person that has been envenomated.
They used to cut the heads off of dogs to prove/disprove rabies infections. Now what percentage of THOSE animals do you believe truly had rabies? And how many people did that save?
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