No the logic behind the majority here is just silly to an extent I cannot believe. The snake was on his neighbors front lawn ( the article does not even write whether or not it was heading towards or away ), which I would say is posing a threat to his family or his neighbors family. Was the biting necessary? Of course not, he could have used a method that would cause the snake to have a quicker death but as the article says he was quite intoxicated. I would rather a human live any day over one snake. If the article was the other way round ( not a snake biting a man's head off ) with him or one of his family members getting fatally bitten people's views would be drastically different.
Would I have done the same thing? No but then again I have enough knowledge to know how to handle the situation properly without causing damage to myself or the snake. This was very a very unavoidable instance but again if you value one snakes life over a human's....well I cannot even respond.