I used to think that way, until the day I was riding with my husband on a tractor and I saw a big rattler strike one of the front tires! From then on, my favorite way to describe a mean person was saying "he/she is meaner than a rattlesnake with a headache". And I've lost count of how many of them I've shot... the only good rattler is a dead rattler.
I am more frightened of gasoline fumes in an enclosed space that a damn snake.
That is the irony here.