People hate snakes because people hate snakes it's just the nature of people. It's either that garden of eden thing or maybe snakes ate the heck out monkeys in Africa and there's some sort of genetic memory thing I don't know.
Having grown up in South Texas where people REALLY hate snakes I am convinced that the legal protection given to Roadrunners and indigo snakes has nothing to do with conservation and everything to with both being active rattlesnake predators. In the case of roadrunners it sure ain't because they are rare.
Having done grounds crew work here in Fl and being a herper I used to be the one they would call at one place I worked whenever they found a snake. Of course the black racers always just take off but the other common one I would find would be yellow rats. I have found that 95% of the time you can pick up a yellow rat snake without even an attempt of biting by the snake as long as your gentle with it. Several times I demonstrated this to people who would be watching the whole time while I picked up a wild snake unrestrained and walked away with it and explained that they won't hurt you if you leave it alone and they would STILL freak out even while watching what I was doing. It is just ingrained in people even though it does defy logic.

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