SACRAMENTO, Calif - A California man is in
custody after being accused of biting a python in what police said
was apparently an unprovoked attack on the pet snake of an
acquaintance.
The suspect, David Senk, 54, was arrested on Thursday evening on
suspicion of unlawfully maiming or mutilating a reptile, Sacramento
police Sergeant Andrew Pettit said on Friday. The badly injured
snake underwent surgery.
In a jailhouse interview aired on KOVR-TV in Sacramento, Senk
said he had no recollection of the incident after having blacked
out from drinking but felt "horrible as hell about it."
Asked why he might have bitten the snake, Senk replied: "I get
drunk, I get crazy. I don't know. I've been an alcoholic for a long
time."
Senk was taken into custody after police, responding to a report
of an assault, found him lying on the ground with blood on his
face. Officers were then approached by another man and a woman who
told them Senk had just taken two large bites out of their python
when they let him hold the snake, Pettit said.
"There was nothing to indicate that the snake provoked him at
all. He (Senk) just out of the blue took a bite," the police
spokesman said. "From what I understand, he didn't say anything. He
was pretty incoherent."
The beige- and brown-colored snake, measuring 3 to 4 feet in
length, was reported to be recovering after a veterinarian stitched
up the reptile, Pettit said.
Senk said in the interview he was "not too fond of snakes (but)
I try not to bite them."
"It's the other way around usually," he added. They bite
me."
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