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Source: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/10098
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

<p>The newsletter from the Virginia Wildlife Rescue League reported the following incident.</p>

<p>A man, his partner and her 4 year old daughter were walking in Farquier County (a rural county), when they saw a snake, about three feet long, thin and striped, on the trail.</p>

<p>The man told his partner and her daughter to go back to the cabin -- and this seemed (not clear) to involve passing the snake.  So the man picked up the snake close to its head to get it out of the way.  The snake bit the man twice on the hand, and, it turned out, that it was a rattlesnake.</p>

<p>The man lost consciousness within a very few minutes.  He survived, but was in very bad shape for several days, with a great deal of internal bleeding. </p>

<p>It is clear that he did the worst thing he could have done, but, what would have been the best thing to do?  </p>

<p>Also, does this sound like a case of an adolescent rattlesnake not being able to control its venom output?  There was a question about this point a few months earlier.  See <a href="https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/9319/at-what-point-is-a-rattlesnake-mature-enough-to-control-its-venom/9325#comment23406_9325">At what point is a rattlesnake mature enough to control its venom?</a>  </p>

<p>This particular snake was in Virginia, USA.  From The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries  <a href="https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Rattlesnakes+in+Virginia" rel="nofollow noreferrer">(Rattlesnakes in Virginia)</a>, it was probably a timber rattlesnake, which grows to 36 to 60 inches (90 to 152 cm).  Also known as the velvet tail or banded rattler. </p>