Yea I saw that, they have a very small range overall and here in PA they are totally off limits. He is catching them, freezing them, and feeding them to his ringnecked snakes. Just because there are a lot in HIS area does not make it okay. If you are going to breed snakes as feeders that is one thing, but to go and and grab any happy healthy garter snake you see in the wild is just plain wrong, let alone a protected species. I wouldn't take wild mice from a nest to feed to my snakes and I only use a WC salamander or frog if I have a snake that is refusing everything else!

I would just be careful, if he takes them from PA, they are illegally collected and that's a danger to both him and you! I don't know about any other states (southern NY maybe?) regulations concerning them.