Reply #9: I've lived on the Gulf Coast most of my life

[Aerows]

Feel free to make a distinction between venomous and poisonous, but the bottom line is they are dangerous. I noted that they rarely kill people, but some people can suffer anaphylactic reactions to them and die.

I can't control what 9 out of 10 people do or think, but I'm certainly not going to get buddy buddy with a water moccasin or a rattlesnake. Your 9 out of 10 people also likely have no experience hiking or being in areas populated by wild animals, and they aren't very likely to come in contact with many of them, anyway. I *have* come in contact with them, and I don't randomly kill cottonmouths in their own environment. If they come into MY environment, however, that's a different story, because the last thing I want is a dead child or pet.

Are some people incapable of telling the difference between a grass snake and a cottonmouth? Yes, but most of them aren't going to come in contact with them on a regular basis. I have no idea where you live, but things are very different in rural areas than they are right in the middle of downtown.