r/nottheonion • u/AlwaysBlaze_ • 6h ago
B.C. boy bitten by rattlesnake his father picked up: 'We made a few mistakes'
https://theprovince.com/news/bc-boy-bitten-by-rattlesnake-his-father-picked-up-we-made-a-few-mistakes/wcm/240b1d1a-5688-4fd2-a2ae-b6c4c1975728414
u/poonmangler 5h ago
Now the family is speaking out in the hopes of helping raise awareness about snakes, rattlesnakes in particular,
I'm really glad they're bringing attention to an issue that is solved by fucking survival instincts.
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u/JimHeckdiver 5h ago
Right?
I never knew that one of the world's most famous venomous snakes was DANGEROUS.
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u/kacmandoth 5h ago
Apparently they don’t all grow up watching old Westerns on TV in Scotland.
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u/poonmangler 4h ago
Surely to god they are familiar enough with cats, rodents, and the concept of hissing to have developed an instinctual response to any sounds which may possess a similar quality.
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u/ObsoleteReference 5h ago
I’m not saying being phobic of all snakes is better, but I’ve sure as fuck never even contemplated picking up a rattle snake.
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u/ewouldblock 2h ago
Especially if you've ever heard the rattling up close. I was in a car and it was jarring and unmistakable.
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u/ObsoleteReference 48m ago
I just want to confirm the rattlesnake was not in the car with you, because that is a new nightmare I do not need
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u/ewouldblock 17m ago
I was off-roading, it was trail side so you could roll the windows down and safely see it and also hear it up close. What i remember was it was loud and even being safe in the jeep it sounded scary. Like you gotta be an idiot to hear that sound then be like oh maybe i should try to touch it. The first reaction is oh shit I gotta get out of here.
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u/Brilliant_Effort_Guy 5h ago
It’s giving: Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure
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u/Historical-Edge-9332 5h ago
“Turns out, the reason he was making a rattling sound was because he didn’t enjoy being handled, but I just thought he was being playful.”
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u/wellrat 5h ago
Yeah my thalamus and amygdala have pretty strong feelings about sticks that look kinda like snakes.
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u/ObsoleteReference 47m ago
There was a shed skin on my lawn for a while until I got tired of the jumpscares and made myself touch it to move it.
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u/NouveauNewb 2h ago
It's wild, isn't it? I grew up in the country and saw snakes all the time. I wouldn't say I love them but I'm certainly not phobic. I also live in an area with virtually no venomous or dangerous fauna, so I never have any real reason to be on edge (except for the Nantucket Strangler, but that's a different story).
At any rate, I'm out hiking on a maintained trail in a relatively popular wilderness area. I must've been looking around at nature or something because when I eventually glanced down, I realized I was nearly on top of a 2-foot black snake of some sort that was lying across the path. Before I even registered what it was, I yelped and jumped back a foot or two. Only split seconds into that reaction did I consciously realize it was a snake. In fact, I specifically remember thinking it was a very dark branch at first. I must've scared it as much as it scared me because it slithered into the woods immediately after.
Anyway, my point is that, whether you're scared of snakes or not, you have to make a purposeful effort to ignore your instincts, handle one, then get bitten. Ignoring the obvious signs of probably the most famous venomous snake in the world when it's pissed off is whole separate level of purposeful negligence that it almost causes me to feel pity for them. I mean, should they be under professional care?
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u/GloriousWombat 1h ago
You would be surprised though. I have a cousin from Victoria that has kids close in age to me, so one year his family met up w/ my family in Drumheller to go camping and he almost got his kids killed twice.
First incident was with rattlesnakes, we could hear them rattling away, and me and my brother were like “we’re going to go wait in the car” and he was like nono! It’s fine! You guys are being dramatic etc. (My family lived in Wyoming for a few years and are from Sask so like obviously we know the deal.) Anyways so we were like DUDE get away from the rattlesnakes they’ll get you, and sure enough one lunged at one of his kids and came like millimetres from getting the kid and he couldn’t believe it…even though we literally told him.
The second incident also happened on that trip. He was letting all his kids swim in the river, no lifejackets, nothing, and it’s June/July so the water was fast, me and my siblings were just like wading in the shallow part and they were full on going past their shoulders swimming, and one of his kids got pulled down by the current and my mom and like three other people saw it happen and went and saved her, and my cousin was just like what? What happened? Like he had no idea that people could get dragged down by currents and die even though my mom told him it was dangerous and was trying to wrangle all four of his children out of the water. Anyway needless to say, we never went camping with them again.
Some people just literally have no survival skills. It’s crazy.
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u/KaisarDragon 5h ago
“It took a few days to process everything, and we had many reflective conversations,” said Andrea. “The big takeaway was I knew the dangers of rattlesnakes, and I just assumed everyone knew about them.”
That is a really nice way of saying she yelled "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" for hours on end.
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u/Ok-Parfait-9856 5h ago
Did the guy not know about the dangers? I mean who doesn’t know that rattlesnakes are dangerous. I live in a city far away from any but consider it common knowledge.
This guy is one of the first people to almost win a Darwin Award despite having a child, considering he nearly killed his kid and himself
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u/KaisarDragon 5h ago
Dad grew up in Scotland. They don't have rattlers over there.
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u/Nulleparttousjours 4h ago
In fairness, we have the venomous European adder in the UK, and several other snakes and lizards. Most sensible people know to admire wildlife from a distance and not go around snatching up and harassing it.
In truth it doesn’t matter where you live or are from, unless you were born yesterday and never exposed to any media ever, how can you be unaware what an iconic rattle snake is (or the fact it is dangerous?!)
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u/All__Of_The_Hobbies 3h ago edited 3h ago
Also, even if you do choose to grab wildlife, don't do it to a snake you don't know anything about!
I semi-frequently grab snakes (they get in the garden shed and other garden hiding places), but I know what lives near me (nothing venomous), what each snake is, and if it would try to bite me.
At this point I've removed the same rat snake from the garden tool shed probably ten times this summer. I'm actually totally fine with him living there, but he is unhelpful when I'm moving things around. I don't appreciate the jump scare of a snake appearing.
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u/Nulleparttousjours 3h ago
Absolutely that!
Oh sure, I hear you. The only wild reptile I ever reluctantly handled was a beautiful slow worm who decided to come into my house! I think that’s the exception to the rule but I’d never disturb, touch or stress an animal that was out in the wild minding its business. Even well handled pet reptiles often tolerate touch more so than seek it out.
My mind is blown about this case though. Rattlesnakes are practically over-used in media to represent that “ooooh spicy danger” vibe haha! So many films/shows use a shot of a rattler in desert scenes to build heavy tension or foreshadow danger. They make it into everything from kids’ movies to cartoons to more adult themed films.
How did this guy miss something so culturally over saturated.3
u/KaisarDragon 3h ago
Well, they both like snakes and were too used to picking up the harmless garter snakes around their place. Yeah, he should have known not to pick up an unknown snake regardless of where he's from or grew up with.
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u/Ok-Parfait-9856 3h ago
No rattlers near me either. Do Scots just go around grabbing snakes? Didn’t they learn from Ireland? Rattlers are fairly iconic too, it’s not like it was some generic look snake (wouldn’t be much better)
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u/ohbuddywhy 2h ago
It's such a public speaking way of saying "I learned that my husband is a fucking idiot"
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u/Nabusco 5h ago
what is the thought process to pick up a fcking rattlesnake
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u/Any-Question-3759 5h ago
“I watch videos that tell me I’m an alpha and animals will obey an alpha.”
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u/Evil_phd 1h ago
You have to understand, after watching several movies they decided that they have a supernatural connection with nature and that the deadly snakes will sense their alpha nature and pure intentions.
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u/Novel_Company_5867 5h ago
I love snakes, but rattlesnakes I'll admire from a distance, thanks.
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u/doppelgaengster 4h ago
I love rattlesnakes because they’re always so clear about communicating their boundaries. If you hear one, it’s saying “stay the fuck away! (Pls and thx)”
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u/datskinny 5h ago
What are the other mistakes?
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u/WannaBMonkey 5h ago
Having the kid without the parenting skills to not wave a venomous snake at them seems like a mistake
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u/Ok_Nectarine1801 5h ago
I am a father and my kids safety is always at the top of my mind. How is this idiot teaching his kids how to be competent adults doing some dumb shit like this.
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u/Euphoric-Effective30 5h ago
Women get bit by snakes much less often, and in the foot/ankle. MEN, on the other hand, are bitten way more often....and in the damn face!!! Because They Pick It Up!!! 🙄
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u/Lunar-opal 5h ago
Sometimes it’s a wonder how men survive at all
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u/Drak_is_Right 3h ago
An ex had a lot of choice words for me when I tried to show her a spider and it jumped out of my hands onto her.
Was a nice little spider with about the same diameter as a tennis balll.
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u/Protean_Protein 4h ago
If you can think of a better way to impress a woman who was just bitten on the foot/ankle by a snake, you let me know!
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u/Cosgrove45 5h ago
I hate snakes but I also hate the people who antagonize them by trying to pick them up or mess with them venomous or not
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u/SnooHesitations3709 5h ago
"Dad didn't realize rattlesnakes bite when he encouraged his son to pick it up"
Not very smart
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u/neo_sporin 5h ago
We used to catch snakes. My brother caught one in a fast food cup and brought it home
Then my dad yelled a lot because it was a baby rattlesnake
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u/LoudAd3588 5h ago
The way some parents do absolute foolishness and then when their kid pays the price they start "raising awareness" like, buddy, I AM ALREADY AWARE. YOU WERE THE ONE WHO LACKED THE SHARED AWARENESS. AND IT WAS BY CHOICE.
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u/stupid_cat_face 4h ago
How does one grow up and become an adult and not know about the dangers of a rattlesnake? Nature gave it a fucking warning rattle. It's not like it's cute and cuddly like the Monty Python rabbit!
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u/Longjumping-Bus4939 4h ago
Like 20 years ago some dude told me a story about illegally capturing a rare baby rattlesnake in Missouri.
It was illegal to take this creature as a pet, but he did it anyway. (I don't remember the pertinent laws).
They had a brush with a park ranger on the way out and he had to hold the snake behind its head, while it was in his pocket, to sneak it out.
I remember wishing he had gotten bit.
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u/Easy-Pen3547 3h ago
The rattlesnake was already actively raising awareness. That is literally what the rattle is for.
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u/Citizen-Kang 5h ago
I've seen a rattlesnake on the trail. I don't care what the statistics are, I give them a very wide berth.
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u/FckXFckMusk 4h ago
Darwin Awards...
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u/Chassian 1h ago
In kind of the weirdest way, where the living offspring are also involved with the parent's stupidity...
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u/ManicMakerStudios 5h ago
My first thought on reading the headline was that the father must be some special kind of dumbass to do something like that, but I think in this case he genuinely didn't know about the danger because there are no rattlesnakes in Scotland. When I was a kid I worked summers in an arid part of that province and there were rattlesnakes and black widow spiders. I never saw a rattlesnake but I was warned that they were around. We were taught in grade school about rattlesnakes and black widows because they were well known to live in various parts of the province.
It's just one of those things where if nobody tells you, you don't really have any way to know.
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u/obscureposter 4h ago
I never understood excusing that much ignorance. I haven’t grown up with rattlesnakes either but I know they are dangerous. Hell I know that some snakes are venomous and therefore will not pick up random snakes because I have no idea if they are venomous or not.
So I disagree. The father is a special kind of dumbass.
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u/ManicMakerStudios 4h ago
Ignorance means you don't know. You don't know until you learn. How do you learn unless you're told or you experience it first hand? You have to be reassonable.
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u/obscureposter 4h ago
Because there is so much information that you are exposed to as someone as someone who has been alive for at least 30 years like the father. Are you telling me the father never encountered any information on snakes? Never saw a movie, tv show or book, where the snakes are presented as dangerous?
Also the father is Scottish. I’m sorry but Scotland isn’t an illiterate nation where the notion of snakes being dangerous is some esoteric knowledge that an average person cannot be expected to know.
The father being that ignorant is a choice and that’s why he is a dumbass.
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u/ManicMakerStudios 4h ago
We're not talking about "snakes" in general. We're talking about a particular species of snake that is venomous, when his encounters with snakes up to that point had been non-venomous snakes.
I don't know why you're so invested in cutting the guy down. Be a reasonable person.
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u/obscureposter 4h ago
I’m not invested in cutting him down. I’m just calling a spade a spade. Feel free to disagree as you do.
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u/ManicMakerStudios 3h ago
You're being unreasonable and emotional, and you're not thinking. Some of you are arguing like the fact knowledge is available means we should all know everything about everything. The world doesn't work that way.
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u/Objective_Data_6614 5h ago
Scotland is not that isolated that an adult with access to the internet would know not to pick up a fucking snake
I live in a country with very strict gun laws, I’ve never held a gun….. I know not to aim one in my child’s face …… because, common sense
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u/ManicMakerStudios 4h ago
There's a big difference between being able to recognize a gun and being able to recognize that the snake in your yard now is venomous when all of the other snakes in your yard haven't been?
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u/Objective_Data_6614 4h ago edited 4h ago
not being able to recognise a rattlesnake?! lmao- it makes a fucking sound for ya bud
I have NEVER met an adult that didn’t know what a rattle snake was
I’m more just pointing out that you said he was from Scotland so give him a free pass because they don’t have snakes……
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u/ManicMakerStudios 4h ago
it makes a fucking sound for ya bud
Read the fucking article. It didn't make a sound.
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u/Skinnwork 5h ago
There are very few venomous snakes on Canada, and they only live in a couple spots (the eastern massasauga rattle snake in South East Ontario, the prairie rattle snake in southern prairies, and the northern Pacific rattle snake in BC's Okanogan region (where this occured)). It's probably a good idea to know what's in the area. Usually, these areas do a good job of warning people of the dangers. For instance, camping at Dinosaur Provincial Park, I was warned by park staff that they were around and how I should respond. There was also a giant display board with the area's venomous animals (the snake, black widows, and scorpions).
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u/doppelgaengster 4h ago
I tend to think of rattlers as a SW thing (grew up in Southern California, and we have several species here), so rattlesnake safety is something I grew up with my entire life (real easy: don’t touch; if you hear one, avoid it).
My parents really like tent camping and backpacking, so one of the first things we’d do setting out on a trip is go over the dangerous wildlife we might encounter. (Mostly bears, but still also snakes.) I didn’t learn till much later that apparently such common sense measures were, in fact, not common.
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u/Wolfman513 2h ago
The southwest is really famous for them, but a lot of people don't realize that rattlesnakes are pretty much all across the Americas from southern Canada all the way down to Argentina!
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u/doppelgaengster 1h ago
Yeah we got the Big Boi rattlers down there (ie, the diamondbacks), and I think I knew they went down into S America, but didn’t know about Canada (though I immediately looked up “rattlesnake species in Canada” after reading this post 😹)!
I love snakes that attempt to establish good boundaries because not all venomous snakes do that! I respect their boundary-setting.
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u/Wolfman513 1h ago
Oh man if you think ours in the southwest are big, check out Eastern diamondbacks! They're literally one of the heaviest venomous snakes in the world lol
And yeah even some Canadians aren't aware they have rattlers, I visited a friend in Vancouver a few years back and mentioned the Northern Pacific rattlesnake up there and he had absolutely no idea they were a thing😂
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u/Skinnwork 1h ago
I mean, it makes sense, you have to travel to see them and they only exist in a small area.
The only venomous snakes I've seen in the wild are prairie Rattlers, and they're teenie tiny.
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u/Serafita 4h ago
Boy will be able to hold it over dad forever. "Hey dad, remember that time when you nearly killed me?" haha
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u/ThePreciseClimber 42m ago
B.C. Boy sounds like a prehistoric superhero.
The Adventures of Caveman & B.C. Boy.
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u/weasel_mullet 5h ago
So this is the basis for my argument that modern medicine is detrimental to the continued evolutionary development of our species.
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u/Auslo- 5h ago
I hope their insurance doesn't cover the antivenin bill
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u/NoFanksYou 44m ago
This is Canada so I don’t think this will bankrupt them. Sorry to disappoint you
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u/SandMan3914 5h ago
I can't think of many reasons as to why you'd pick up a garter snake either, and it's also easy to spot the difference
Maybe just try not to pick up snakes
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u/doppelgaengster 4h ago
Garter snakes are generally sweet and harmless, but best left to nature. Unless you happen to have some rough-skinned newts you want to offer them as snackies. (They’re also live-bearers, and baby snake season in one of the local parks where I live is delightful)
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u/succed32 6h ago
If it’s a Rocky Mountain rattlesnake that’s not a big issue. They are way less venomous than their southern cousins.
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u/CeruleanFruitSnax 5h ago
Bruh, rating the venomousness of rattlesnakes is a fool's errand. How about don't get bitten by a snake that literally warns you that you are too close.
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u/succed32 1h ago
They do not always warn you, obviously this story is a bit different than most rattlesnake bites.
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u/thats_handy 5h ago
Keremeos is in the Okanagan. It was a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake, most likely.
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u/Falconman21 4h ago
I was in the woods with my Dad one time, and we found a rattle snake. Heard it while we were walking around, tracked it down.
As we're looking at it, he goes "help me find a stick, let's kill it!" To which I replied, ".....you have a gun, just shoot it."
I was 10 at the time, that's when I realized my Dad was wilder than I'll ever be.
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u/powermetalsalamander 2h ago
“i went into a rattlesnake’s house with my dad and then we murdered it for being where it lives, which was awesome.”
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u/distortionisgod 5h ago
I remember hiking in the Badlands, and my sister was super freaked out about the possibility of being bitten by a snake. To help ease her mind I asked one of the Rangers at the info center how often it happened.
She said very confidently it was very rare, and in almost all of the cases the bites were on the hands of (mostly young men) who were clearly trying to pick it up....lol.
We had an amazing time there with no issues.