Had to kill another rattler in the yard tonight.

Beheaded Snake Sends Man to Hospital
By Associated Press

41 minutes ago

PROSSER, Wash. - Turns out, even beheaded rattlesnakes can be dangerous. That's what 53-year-old Danny Anderson learned as he was feeding his horses Monday night, when a 5-foot rattler slithered onto his central Washington property, about 50 miles southeast of Yakima.

Anderson and his 27-year-old son, Benjamin, pinned the snake with an irrigation pipe and cut off its head with a shovel. A few more strikes to the head left it sitting under a pickup truck.

"When I reached down to pick up the head, it raised around and did a backflip almost, and bit my finger," Anderson said. "I had to shake my hand real hard to get it to let loose."

His wife insisted they go to the hospital, and by the time they arrived at Prosser Memorial Hospital 10 minutes later, Anderson's tongue was swollen and the venom was spreading. He then was taken by ambulance 30 miles to a Richland hospital to get the full series of six shots he needed.

The snake head ended up in the bed of his pickup, and Anderson landed in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon.

Mike Livingston, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, said the area where the Anderson's live is near prime snake habitat. But he said he had never heard of anyone being bit by a decapitated snake before.

"That's really surprising but that's an important thing to tell people," he said. "It may have been just a reflex on the part of the snake."

If another rattlesnake comes along, Anderson said he'll likely try to kill it again, but said he'll grab a shovel and bury it right there.

"It still gives me the creeps to think that son-of-a-gun could do that," he said.

Glad to see Rodney did'nt mess up a lot of the meat when he offed the rattler, we took out a 53 inch Timber Rattler in our trailer park up on the Miss. River 3 weeks ago. Can't blame the cat for wanting to catch it, your kitty obviously knows good food when she sees it !!!!!

I am well aware that even a decapitated rattler is dangerous, the head part anyway. Karenfh, my dog was bitten right on the nose, I actually pulled one of the fangs out of the top of her nose, the other puncture was right in the middle of her top lip. We went directly to the emergency animal clinic, had her there in less than an hour and by that time she looked pretty bad. It took weeks for her face to return to normal but like I said, her lips still droop and probably always will but she did recover. As far as the cat goes, she is her own cat, I'm just her chef. I have come to the conclusion that cats are untrainable, way to independant and they listen about as well as a small trimmed hedge. I would of liked to have kept her away from the snake, as well as the tarantula, the large toads, the scorpions, the man-eating black beetlebugs with built in saw looking legs, and all of the other critters she takes on but that would be my full time job. She enjoys being caged in an upside down laundry basket about as much as she does having her paws taped to the driveway! Just kidding! Haven't ever tried that but the point is she is constantly in attack mode. I have never had a cat before and I'm hoping this is just a growing stage, kind of like the terrible 2's but trying to control her isn't real easy. I wish I had a video camera so I could film her practicing her pouncing positions and attacking techniques on the dogs, the grass, the air, the rocks and everything else she comes in contact with. We do police the entire yard frequently in hopes of sparing all of our animals from any unnecessary harm.