Do you kill snakes you find in your yard?

[9Catsz]

I don't kill any snake on my property. If it's venomous and in the yard, I just use a snake hook and urge it to go back into the woods....timber rattlers and copperheads thrive where I live.

After working with snakes for over 15 years I've learned one thing, most venomous snake sightings are not copperheads or cottonmouths at all but harmless water snakes. Ppl know I love snakes and over the years I've had tons of ppl bring me carcasses of dead 'cottonmouths' or 'copperheads' or pics for a positive identification and not one of them has been a cottonmouth, copperhead or even a venomous snake for that matter.

Mostly northern water snakes and everything from rough green snakes, garter snakes, speckled kings to prairie kings and even a ringneck, yep a ringneck was misidentified and killed as a cottonmouth.

As for the kids, you have to teach them to leave wild snakes alone. Just as you teach them to look both ways before they cross the road. If one wants their kids safe, then one better lock them in their bedrooms and even then they can break their arm falling off the top bunk bed! And when that happens do you get rid of the bed? It's dangerous and caused a broken arm and pain.

[SGExotics]

Well i live in new york... So the only snake i've ever seen out here was a copperhead when i went upstate to my cousins house... But i really want to move to florida.. The only thing that makes me not want to move there is the venomous snakes... I have dogs, and i wouldnt want to risk them being out in the yard and getting bit.. The same way you wouldnt want to risk your children getting bit.. My dogs are like my children lol... So i would try to get something to maybe Repel the snakes away.. And if the snakes werent close to my dogs, or kids, i would catch it and move it somewhere else... But if it was too close to kids (family..), or my dogs, and i didnt have time to get a stick, pin it and bag it, you better believe im gonna put the snake out, b4 its ever touching kids or my dogs... If 1 of 2 things had to die.. its going to be the snake, rather than my dogs or kids & family, etc... But I hope I'll never have to do that... Killing a snake is really a desperate last resort.... I hate to kill anything thats alive... Except rats.... And cows.... Maybe even turkeys... And i guess chickens too... And.. Yeah ill stop now..

[9Catsz]

I wonder how much of a threat our native venomous snakes are to dogs. My stepmother's rottweiler was bitten on the face by a timber rattlesnake and, except for the pain and swelling at the site, the dog was fine. The vet told her to keep an eye on the dog and gave her some antibiotic pills. Her other dog was bitten by a copperhead and the vet told her not to bother bringing it in.

Within a few days of being bitten, both dogs were fine. The rott lived to be 12 and the shepherd mix 11.

I was very shocked at how many people, on a snake website no less, think it's okay to kill snakes. I belong to caged bird websites and none of those people kill the animals they chat about. Yeah, yeah, birds aren't venomous, I know that. But I think ya'll are blowing the danger factor of a venomous snake in your yard way out of proportion to the actual danger those snakes propose.

[Raptor]

But I think ya'll are blowing the danger factor of a venomous snake in your yard way out of proportion to the actual danger those snakes propose.

Tell that to the goat I had that ended up have nerve damage in his hind legs from being bit.

[DutchHerp]

Tell that to the goat I had that ended up have nerve damage in his hind legs

Out of context.

Later, Matt

[Neal]

Out of context.

Later, Matt

LMFAO, I seen that one coming.

[oliverstwist]

i liev in north Mo so i dont find anything really but grters and usually a cat is carring one so I CATCHIT and SAVE ITS LIFE!

[SlitherinSisters]

I don't, but the only snakes I would ever find in my yard, which I never have, are garter snakes. When I lived in the country as a child we had a lot of bull snakes, but we never killed them. In fact my brother liked to bring them in the house as pets and would "accidently" let them loose.

[euphuistical]

I don't kill any but if I found a venominous then I would kill it (I live in central Florida, only snake I've seen in my yard was an indigo, but my brother had a run in with a water mocasin.

[Ginevive]

If I came across a non-native, harmless snake, I would make every effort to catch it, QT it, and get it to a good home. Non-native animals to me, should be removed from the wild if at all possible, because they don't belong where they are, and are dangerous to native wildlife. Some would kill them on-sight; I think that it'd be kewler to rehome or keep one. Like if I found a ball python in my yard...
If the snake that I saw, was a threatened/endangered species, I would definately not kill it unless I was cornered or something. If it was a common nonvenomous, I would definately never kill it if it was native. And if it were venomous and I personally, or someone I was with, was in danger by it at that moment, then it would die because I am all about self-preservation. But I would not kill them on-sight. That would be like killing mountain lions or other dangerous, native animals on-site because they "could hurt a person." To me, that is wrong. Humans enroach on animals' territories enough as it is; if we are around them, it is up to us to beware. Accidents happen and I feel bad for people who get injured by snakes; but I am not about an animal's guilt until proven innocent.