Flame suit on, because some aren't going to like this, but its the reality of the situation. I live in Alabama. This happened in a very rural area where care for a snake bite would have been minimal at best. We have coral stakes here and king snakes that mimic them. Honestly, If I didn't know which one I had on my hands I would probably have killed it as well (I am capable of telling the difference but someone not from here may not be), given that they have a large amount of people who don't know the area or the wildlife tromping through the woods. It was just too dangerous to leave it and hope it went away if it was venomous. Based on my experience with them, they don't scare easily. It would still have been in the area and its likely someone would have gotten bitten. In this case, the people take precedence.