Here’s something that unfortunately happens often: a member of the general public finds a snake in their yard. They consult the internet for help identifying it, and people tell them it’s venomous and needs to be removed immediately before it harms someone. Soon, the thread has tons of people offering to relocate the snake for free. Relieved by kind people offering this free service, the property owner accepts the offer, and someone shows up to relocate the snake. It looks like a happy ending, but for the snake, it may not be.
Many of these snakes are not being relocated at all. Instead, they are trafficked illegally into the underground pet trade and into religious snake-handling practices. There are multiple religions that incorporate snake handling into rituals, sometimes including torture or sacrifice of the animal and nearly always involving human endangerment. Yes, this is a thing that really happens, and the animals are often sourced through unlicensed wildlife removal services.
Non-venomous snakes in particular, especially some of the docile and colorful species like milksnakes and greensnakes, are often collected for the pet trade, which is (shockingly!) allowed in many states and only rarely prosecuted. These animals are permanently removed from the wild for profit, without the person who accepts the “service” realizing that the snake is being sold.
Even when the snake actually is relocated, that’s not always a good outcome. Relocated animals rarely survive due to exposure to new diseases and competition from others of their species. And the area where the snake is relocated may not actually be any safer for the snake or for humans: most often, it is dumped on someone else’s private property, where it is likely to be killed. (Public lands and wildlife sanctuaries do not allow unlicensed “relocation services” to release animals on their property.)
If you’ve found a snake on your property, please simply leave it alone. The snake isn’t likely to hurt you or anyone else unless directly provoked. But if you absolutely insist on having the animal removed, please use a licensed, professional wildlife relocation company, not a stranger on the internet who is offering to do you a “favor.”
For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue 