As I said earlier on the thread, you can't save all of them and you can't accept guilt for the ones that you can't. No matter what anyone else says, this poor snake is not your fault - it is the owners' fault. Accepting responsibility for all the mistreated animals you come in contact with is one of the big things that leads to animal rescuers becoming awful hoarding cases or becoming horribly burned out.
With the kind of rapid escalation that they seem to be demonstrating, your mother is correct and it's probably best for you to completely uninvolve yourself. There certainly are no possible legal repercussions for calling animal control but that's not the same as no repercussions. Police will only get involved after the harm has already been done if anyone decided to come after you for this. From the experience of a family member, stalking, threats, multiple sets of tires slashed and the car keyed was not sufficient to get any action from police even after repeated requests. People hold grudges for a very long time and can make your life a misery. Don't get in over your head.
You've done a great thing for Dave and likely will do great things for others in the future. Unfortunately this one is one of the painful lessons in when to give up the fight. You've done what you can. Thank you for doing so.
