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Man suffers bites from pet rattlesnake

Clay Davenport

Clay Davenport

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Purchased at a pet store :bandhead0

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PETOSKEY - A 21-year-old Emmet County man was hospitalized after being bitten by his pet diamondback rattlesnake.
Sgt. Tim Rodwell of the Emmet County Sheriff's Office said the East Mitchell Road man was bitten twice on the hand while trying to change a bulb in the snake's holding tank Sunday. He was taken first to Northern Michigan Hospital, and from there to Grand Rapids, police said.
"It was discovered that it was a dry bite. No venom was transferred," Rodwell said. "He is going to be OK."
Rodwell did not divulge the victim's name and said the rattler was purchased at Traverse City pet store. He said he did not know the name of the store, but said the animal has been returned there.

Link to Story
 
A number of years ago, we had a local pet store selling hots - kept them in 10 gal aquariums with screen tops...and a brick. needless to say, in relatively short order, they were prohibited in that county (this was a major inconvenience because that is where the airport is and - since the law disallowed anyone to own, possess, or transport - the shipping office wouldn't let me receive venomous shipments. I had to drive an hour and 40 minutes to the next airport.) The (idiot) that got bitten by the gaboon viper was a real ambassador for our cause, too. right after he got out of the hospital, he appeared on the news - freehandling the same snake that bit him, and pulling its lip aside to show off the fangs.
 
It never ceases to amaze me that some people think that owning a venomous snake and keeping it for awhile then consider it as a "PET". And then begin to display behavior around the snake that they would show to a non-venomous animal. And what happens, they take a hit and it makes the rest of the herpers seem stupied for having reptiles in their homes.
 
I just met genious at Petco yesterday who told me he's been keeping snakes for 5 months and has a rattlesnake that he caught by his house...when I inquired to him what species, he simply said "A diamondback". So I decided to see just how knowledgable this guy was, and said, "Oh an Eastern Diamondback", to which he replied "Yeah, an Eastern"...I live in New Mexico.

So here this guy is, with all of 5 months of snakekeeping under his belt (he also mentioned that he keeps a Peruvian boa, columbian boa, kenyan sand boa, and a ball python all in the same cage :( ), with a very dangerous snake (it's actually a WDB, Crotalus atrox) he can't even properly identify.

It's also illegal to possess viperids and elapids inside our county limits without a permit, which this guy surely doesn't have (I asked him, even though I already knew the answer).
 
Oh yeah, that guy's time is limited. He's going to get bitten.
A keeper with 5 months experience having a hot is bad enough, but the fact that the snake is likely an atrox makes it even worse.

I agree that it most likely is an atrox, but unless you saw the snake yourself it could actually be any of the rattlers you have in your area. If he doesn't know easterns are not native there it's unlikely he knows the difference between an atrox and a molossus or worse, a scutulatus. All rattlers are diamondbacks to the average person, it's just the most common term.
 
Clay, I thought the same thing when I read that...luckily the treatment is with polyvalent serum, so precise identification isn't as important (though it does help them know what to expect)
 
Unless it happened to be a scutulatus (Mojave). It would be better for the victim if the ER docs knew if it were that species in particular. I believe the AV is the same, but the case would be treated more cautiously due to the nature of the venom.
Assuming of course he was fortunate enough to get a doc with a good amount of experience treating crotalid envenomations.
 
if only

there was an easier way to eliminate idiots from owning pets. the guy in new mexico sounds like the last person i'd want catching and owning rattlesnakes, i just hope he gets out of the hobby soon enough to get his snakes into a good home (and release the rattler) :uzi: it just irks me so much when i see this kind of behavior, no responsibility for oneself or one's animals...
 
Last year we were herping down in the pine barrens with cub scouts and some of thier parents. We found a lot of nice herps while out. We came accross a large timber rattler which everyone was fascinated with, i hooked him to lift him up for everyone to see (from a distance) then set it back down in the stump where i found him. 5 minutes down the path one of the fathers said he was tired and going to wait for us back at the vehicles. Well guess what, You guessed it. When we got back to the vehicle i was making sure everybody had all thier stuff and the kids were all loaded up and while talking to the "Tired Father" a kind of slammed the door of his vehicle after his son got in and i heard the rattle from the back of his SUV and told him if he didnt give it to me right now i was calling the police and fish and game, well he gave it up and i walked it back to the stump. I informed him that all venomous were illegal in NJ and that the Timber is also endangered but he didnt seem to care. Just goes to show you that there are morons everywhere you go. To kick it off he took his son out of cub scouts the following month. That made a lot of sense, take your son out of a good healthy activity like cub scouts because your mad that you didnt get to keep a venomous snake. Some people!!!!
 
That man deserves the "Cry Baby of the Month Award" there Nick. What a loser, unfortunately his son has to suffer.
 
wow, so where to start. first off the local paper was just slightly off, i would know this due to the fact that i'm the emmet county 21 yr old who got bit. this was two years ago and here are the actual facts. the WESTERN diamondback was not purchased at a pet store but was brought into the pet store i worked at, the man with the snake was looking to unload it on someone. He couldnt keep it and was going to kill the snake if he couldnt get rid of it. i live in a small town and there are not that many people who have had any experience with venomous snakes, at this time neither had I, but i had worked with pretty much every other species of snake. so i took the snake in. i raised it from a baby to just over 4 foot at the time of the bite.
I was not bit twice like the paper stated but bit once on the palm of my hand, the paper i believe got confused because of my 911 call in wich i stated that there was two puncture marks, i was merely trying to state to what degree the bite was. I by no means support the idea of venomous snakes as pets, but in this case when the man who owned the snake said he would kill the thing if he couldnt get rid of it...i believed him and made my choice. I just thought i would set the record straight. i doubt anyone really cares this was a long time ago but still that article pissed me off the moment i read it, the papers should know the facts before printing stuff like that. with that being said, an article like that may have stopped someone from considering these animals as pets and in that case it served a good purpose.
 
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