How did you know what I was thinking?!? The only good rattlesnake is a dead rattlesnake. I dispatched a number while I owned rural property in the Sierra Foothills. Always amazing when you’d cut their head off and the head would still try to strike
They are not misunderstood. They are completely understood...kill on sight!
Worked at a rural shooting range in New Mexico, and we decapitated one in a shooting bay. Left it there for about a half hour to finish up a few things. My co-worker wanted the rattles so he went back to collect them. He picked up the body and it wrapped itself around his arm twice. He levitated about a foot.
Got the rattles and threw it in a dumpster. An hour later we saw one of the “range ravens” (huge older ravens of amazing intelligence) eating it in a tree.