Rattlesnakes are venomous. If you’re bitten, you should seek medical assistance.  But they’re not particularly dangerous. Here’s what you should know:

Rattlesnakes rarely bite humans unless stepped on or roughly handled.

Only about fifty percent of defensive  bites inject venom.

Fatalities from rattlesnake bites are virtually unheard of in otherwise healthy individuals. In the rare instances where a bite causes death, the death is generally the result of  an underlying health issue exacerbated  by the bite, rather than from the bite itself.

In 2016 , rattlesnake venom contributed to the death of a single individual  in the United States who had an underlying medical condition. In the same time period, toddlers younger than four years old shot 51 individuals in the United States, about half of them fatally, while stairs injured over a million people and killed 12,000.  Now think about this:  there are people every day in this country who walk down stairs — with toddlers!  How reckless is that?