Well if vemous snakes would stay down BY the water, then I believe in live and let live. If you venture up to the house, I'm getting the wrench.
We have raccoons too. I don't kill those, but prefer they stay BY the water too. They carry rabies. My brother catches them in have a heart traps and relocates them.
He has never gotten rid of all of them. Relocate one, another moves in. They make loads of noise at night....drives Ramsey nuts when she's inside. THEY'RE IN MY YARD! THEY'RE IN MY YARD!!
Last summer across the water was a raccoon nest. Momma had 5 babies...we watched them play up and down a branch of a tree for weeks. They even wrestled each other on that branch...you just kept expecting one of them to fall out...nope.
One time I bought cat food in a 5 lb bucket with a screw on lid...go out in the garage, lid off, cat food everywhere, sweep it up, thinking dumb cats. Next day same thing....now I think I didn't get the lid on tight enough so I spin it down and STAND on it. Following night...sitting in the den, hear noise in the garage, open the door, flip on the light....there is Mr. Raccoon sitting on his butt,
spinning the lid off with his front two paws.
They are way smart when it comes to getting food. Our trash cans are 5 foot tall w/ flip up lids...don't ask me how those raccoons can climb on top of it AND get the lid up, but they can.