The sad thing is that it probably was a chicken snake, because it slithered into a nearby brush pile. A rattlesnake would have been coiled, ready to attack. A cottonmouth would have attacked! I am talking from years of experience. That lady was scared by a harmless snake!
Rattlers are pretty docile, They tell you where they are.
Leave them alone and they go eat mice.
That lady was scared by a harmless snake!
I would have to disagree with you- it turned out not to be harmless.
However I agree with you- without her interventions, yes it was a harmless snake. And in my thinking, a stupid way to remove something that did not need removing. Harmless snakes will slither away on their own given a chance.