Sometimes Doofi self-select themselves. I only had to read the headline in this case to know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that I'd found the candidate for today's award.
A Lake Elsinore [CA] man was bitten by a rattlesnake Monday as he picked it up and attempted to take a selfie.
Alex Gomez, 36, spotted the four-foot rattler in a field by his family’s ranch on Cielito Drive, shortly before he made the potentially deadly mistake.
. . .
Alex’s nephew, Ronnie, was with him when the snake was discovered, and says the reptile gave plenty of warning.
“It was really think and had ten rattles on it, it was rattling,” Ronnie said. “It was pretty mad.”
. . .
While Gomez is being treated with anti-venom, his mother says he may lose his hand.
“His skin is already rotting away,” Deborah described.
. . .
Gomez’ mother, meanwhile, says sharing his “embarrassing” story is the best way to teach her son a lesson she thought he already knew.
“I told him the news people had been calling, and he said ‘Mom, you better not’, and I said ‘I’m going to’. I’m going to teach him a real good lesson when he gets home. No mercy for him.”
There's more at the link.
A selfie? With a rattlesnake? Verily, the mind doth boggle . . .
I think his mother is going to milk the situation for all it's worth - but then, in that situation, so would I! That's the sort of idiocy that will make anyone who knows anything about critters do a double-take, then a facepalm (while uttering a very long-suffering sigh).
Peter
When I was a kid I found a couple of small snakes in a stream and caught them by their tail and kept them in a bucket. I was only about 90% sure they weren't poisonous, so I was careful not to let them bite me. But now that I think of it, I probably would have been careful not to let them bite me even if I was sure they were not poisonous. :)
ReplyDeleteA fellow who once worked for the Park (or Forest service?) service up in Alaska told me that a goodly chunk of his time had been spent listening in horror to someone saying something like "Here, honey, let me put the baby on the moose's back and then you take a picture!" (They were then usually inundated with employees going "NO THAT'S A TERRIBLE TERRIBLE IDEA."
ReplyDeleteAn astonishing number of people entirely fail to grasp the concept of "wild" and "animal" and come to the appropriate conclusion (which should always be "leave it alone, because it can and will hurt you no matter how cute and harmless it looks!")
Even the idiot town deer that park themselves in my yard. Sure, I can get within six feet of them and they're still staring stupidly at me--but never in a million years would I attempt to corner or otherwise get too close to one. They're still wild animals, and they can and will kick the crap out of you if they feel there is no other option.
Way too much Bambi and Kung Fu Panda, methinks, to understand the concept of "wild."
ReplyDeleteNext time he does it, I'm sure he'll make sure the animal is dead afore he attempts a selfie.
A former pastor talking about the Snake handlers in East Tennessee said the only way he was going handle a rattlesnake was with a hoe.
Having encountered a rattlesnake in the wild and heard that rattle, I can honestly state that picking it up wasn't even a fleeting thought; that noise is visceral in it's promise of harm to you even before you figure out what it is.
ReplyDeleteDang. A rattlesnake? He picked up a RATTLESNAKE? TO TAKE A SELFIE?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't even pick one up if it was dead. I've seen a dead rattlesnake strike at a being poked gently with a shovel. And that was a good while AFTER it'd had it's head blown completely off with a 12-gauge. Nuh uh, buddy, ain't pickin' up no rattler. There are some things that God did not intend for man to pick up and take selfies with, not until they'd been dead a good long while first.