In Keremeos, Canada, the teenager Landen Spittal, 15 years old, was bitten by a rattlesnake during a domestic accident involving his father. The incident occurred while the family was tending to the garden last week, when father Colin found a reptile and, believing it to be a gopher snake — a harmless species the son used to play with — decided to pick it up.
Colin, who grew up in Scotland and had no familiarity with Canada's local species, told the newspaper "The Province" that he saw the snake approaching while using a lawn mower. "I grabbed it because we were playing with gopher snakes," he explained. What he didn't realize is that he was actually holding a rattlesnake.
Landen's bite on the hand was instantaneous and could have been fatal. The animal did not emit any warning sound before attacking, and the young man was bitten as soon as he approached to see the creature. The mother, Andrea, was home at the time of the accident.
