Rattlesnake Bites Young Hunter’s Thumb

SIMI VALLEY — A 16-year-old Simi Valley boy who was hunting reptiles with a friend Saturday afternoon ended up in the hospital after being bitten on the thumb by a 4-foot rattlesnake.

Adam Dailey was bitten about 3:30 p.m. while reaching for a southern Pacific rattler in some hills on Kuehner Drive near the Ronald Reagan Freeway, said his friend, Anthony Sgaraglino.

Despite a swollen hand and shortness of breath Saturday night, Dailey was expected to make a full recovery, said staff at Simi Valley Adventist Hospital.

“I cried a little, cussed a lot and then beat its head,” said Sgaraglino, 15, of his retaliatory attack on the snake, in which he used a stick.

He then decapitated it with a pocketknife before carrying it to a nearby gas station, where Dailey called 911.

Dailey was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he was treated for the bite on his right thumb. Doctors who administered antivenin treatment said they would keep him overnight for observation.

The youths said they planned to eat the snake and then decide who would keep the skin and rattles--a ritual the two have shared five other times this summer, they said.

“It’s an extreme rush,” Sgaraglino said about hunting and catching rattlesnakes.

Dailey, a sophomore at Simi Valley High School, was less enthusiastic.

“I think I’ve had my share of rattlesnakes,” he said from a hospital bed.

Dailey’s mother, Patty Dailey, said her son has always enjoyed catching lizards, scorpions and ants.

“He wanted a pet rattlesnake, which we, of course, adamantly turned him down on,” she said.

She said she was aware her son and his friend had captured and killed several rattlesnakes, and then cooked them, and that she had unsuccessfully forbidden the hobby.

“He’s absolutely not allowed to do this,” she said.

Dailey is the fourth person to be bitten by a rattlesnake in Simi Valley this summer, nurses said. In each case, the injured party had irritated one of the dangerous reptiles.

“If you just leave them alone, they go on their merry way,” said Catt Strickland, a nurse.