British India tried to get rid of cobras by offering a reward for captured snakes. Locals started breeding cobras and giving them to the government to collect the reward. The British found out and stopped the program. The breeders then released their snakes causing the population to increase.

Maybe the answer wasn’t rewarding people for capturing snakes, maybe it should have been a reward for ideas on how to capture snakes.

A technique to solving problems is by flipping the problem and making it a solution. 

Changing the context.

For example:

When pirate Jean Lafitte saw the governor advertising a $500 reward for his capture, Laffite offered $5,000 for the capture of the governor.

And to avoid mistreatment, the dogs in the army are always higher ranked than their handlers.

If you have a problem, you might be able to flip it.