Man snakes have been debated and will be debated for years! I have heard all different views on snakes in the last 20yrs or so of keeping reptiles and there are always those that chose to kill and those that get ****ed because of it. I can tell you that hantavirus is a pretty bad thing for children and elderly and is transmitted by rodents, also there are no endangered rats in Texas. Also Bubonic plague is still transmitted from fleas that have fed on infected mammals including rodents such as rats. Predatory birds like Hawks and Owls can and do take up the slack from depletion of other predators like rattlesnakes but also nature has a way of limiting the population of things such as birds of prey and keeps their population regulated so as soon as the hawk population increases so does the risk of disease that can wipe out a large part of that population. Natures way of limiting things has been proven time and time again. But you have to understand that nature also has a way of increasing a population. Ranchers have found that when they try and totally wipe out the coyote population from their land the female coyotes begin having larger and larger litters and the population sometimes begins to increase even with over hunting! Josh killing a rattlesnake because he fears for his children is a natural thing but thousands being hacked up at roundups every year is not a natural thing. We screw up the natural balance pretty hardcore due to stupidity not dominance.
Original post was a very funny story though!