Decapitated Snake Bites, Poisons Man

If you'd just cut the head off a snake, you'd think it would be safe to reach down and pick it up. Right?

Wrong :

Danny Anderson and his son saw the 5-foot rattler Monday evening while feeding horses. They pinned it with a pipe and cut off its head with a shovel.

When Anderson reached down to pick it up, he said, the snake head twisted around and bit his index finger. In the 10 minutes it took to reach Prosser Memorial Hospital, the venom spread through his body and his tongue had already started to swell.

Anderson got a shot at the hospital and survived.

According to a biologist from the Washington state Fish and Wildlife Department :

"...it's possible the snake had the heat-sensing ability to make one last attack -- or it may have been a reflex."

Some reflex. The snake's head, separated from its body, turned and bit the man.