I've had to deal with 3 snakes on my little piece of suburbia. Because of my suburban environment and lack of a place to relocate them, I had to "dispatch" 2 of them, as they were either venmous or aggressive. In a neighborhood with small children I felt this was necessary for safety. The third, however was a good-sized water snake that wanted nothing more than to beat a hasty retreat from my somewhat fixated and lighting-fast rat terrier. I removed the dog and the snake removed itself, at high speed.