Rattlesnakes are protected species here in Arizona. I mean REALLY!.
That happened because of commercial hunters. So, you are supposed to carefully move a rattler you find in your yard to a wild place. It's pretty tricky to do, mine almost always seem to end up dead. (Or in the neighbors yard :))
I knew there were venom harvesters of rattlesnakes, but there were people harvesting them? Heck they have pretty big broods when they mate, or so I've been told, so why not just farm them if they want the skins for belts and the meat for exotic restaurants. People are lazy I guess, or really afraid of them in tight quarters.