Unfortunately yes, they are often killed by people who judge them "insanely dangerous". This is very sad, I often meet people walking in the woods when I'm out looking for adders, and when they see what I am photographing, they stop dead in their tracks and often turn around, many say they will not take walks in the woods again until winter because of the adders.
Because of this strange fear and the terrible killing of adders, I have written a informative poster which has been distributed around in Norway and hung up in areas where adders and people often cross paths, it contains some facts about adders, and why they are not to be feared. Hopefully this will help a bit.
A very nice shot Varanidae
I have never seen a wild adder we have them locally but have never seen one, we get a lot of Grass snakes in our garden though. may be I need to set a target to see adders next year my own life first.
When people complain about them I always think more children are killed each year in the UK by their own parents than people have been by adders in the last hundred plus years.
In Russia, any snake can be killed, even harmless grass snake with distinctive spots - just for being a snake... dice snakes are being called 'water adders' or 'checker snakes', whose venom kills in five minutes.
The snake slaughter often happens at the demand of human female, who's scared to have a creepy thing around and urges her stud to show his courage.
No animal cruelty laws protect reptiles and amphibians here, only warm-blooded animals that may scream.
