I've was born, raised, and reside in rural upstate new york. We don't have many venomous species if any that show up, I mean yes there are eastern diamond backs that show up from time to time, but in my almost 20 years of living I have yet to see any venomous snake around here. I plan on raising my children with a wealth of knowledge about snakes, and would love to see them get some of their own when they get old enough. I agree with pretty much everyone else by saying that to many people think they will chase after you or attack out of aggression, this is almost never the case. Out of all the snakes kn the world I think the only one that has been documented chasing anyone is the king cobra....none of those here....