Miracle Bennett, a DeSoto resident, has a long love affair with snakes and is on a mission to keep more of them alive with free relocation and education.
DESOTO, Texas — Her name tells the tale of what she works around North Texas: Miracle.
Miracle Bennett is a DeSoto woman who has a lot of love for snakes. In fact, snakes brought her the love of her life as well. She was working at Petland at Town East Mall in 1989 when Jack Bennett came in looking to buy a snake. They celebrate 30 years of marriage this year.
Now, Miracle is “The Snake Lady.”
“Our Generation X parents kicked us out of the door first thing in the morning, said go play all day, come back when the street lights are on, so nobody ever supervised what we were doing,” Miracle said. “So we played with everything and we brought it all home and mom didn’t care, so nobody ever taught us we’re supposed to be afraid of snakes.”
After joining NextDoor, she saw countless people in her neighborhood bragging about killing the reptiles, and she decided to offer her services to remove them for free. Her phone is on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for people who want a snake removed.
“And I’m thinking to myself,” Miracle shared, “Why are you killing these beneficial helpful species that weren’t even possible to harm you in the first place? So I started offering education, here’s what you just killed and why that was the wrong thing to do, but in the future if you have something, give me a shot.”
Miracle shows up to relocate snakes for free, from 100 to 150 per year.
“We get a lot of calls through Waxahachie PD and then the Tri-City Dispatch, which is DeSoto, Cedar Hill, and Duncanville,” she said. Not to mention, Dallas, Lancaster, and anywhere else south of I-30.
Snakes kill rodents, and some even eat venomous snakes.
“We try to educate people that any neighborhood with a rat snake is a blessed neighborhood because it’s out there eating the things that definitely can cause problems,” she said. “Yes, they get quite large, they can get 6 feet-ish, but they’re not hurting anybody unless you literally step on it or put a hand on it. That rat snake is no harm to anybody. It’s not your pets, not your kids, and not you,” Miracle explained. “And that’s what we try to get people to understand.”
Miracle says there are just four species to keep an eye out for in North Texas.
“It’s safe if it’s not a copperhead, it’s not a coral snake, it’s not a rattlesnake, and it’s not a water moccasin,” she emphasized.
If you find a snake that you want removed, you can find someone to take it for free online here. Miracle encourages anyone to use it.
“You can zoom into your area and see who’s around, and it’s free doesn’t cost a penny to be humane and give us a chance to come and move the snake.”
If you see a snake and want to know more about what kind of snake it is, check out this Facebook group.
If you’re wondering where the snakes go after Miracle catches them, she has relationships with landowners and farmers who take the reptiles off her hands. It’s her way of saving snakes across North Texas, and she plans to keep taking calls day and night to do it.