Texas man allegedly bites tail off rattlesnake, releases it in neighbor's home: report

Ryan Felton Sauter was charged with deadly conduct and criminal trespass of a habitation, according to The Austin American-Statesman.

A Texas man allegedly bit the tail off a rattlesnake and released it into his neighbor’s RV after the two got into a heated argument, The Austin American-Statesman reported.

The newspaper reported that the incident occurred on June 17.

Ryan Felton Sauter and his neighbor had an argument, the report said. Later, Sauter found a rattlesnake somewhere in Caldwell County and allegedly bit the tail off, the report said, citing police.

Keith Monroe claimed that he saw the suspect coming out of his RV and asked him why he was there. Sauter allegedly responded, “You’ll see why.”

Monroe said he went inside the RV and found the injured snake—about three-feet long-- curled up in the RV’s corner. He said he eventually killed the snake with a machete.

Sauter was reportedly questioned by detectives and then charged.

Sauter has been charged with deadly conduct and criminal trespass of a habitation, the report said. It is not clear what the two were arguing about, but Monroe told the paper that the two have a long-running dispute.

Rattlesnakes are born in the summer, particularly in July and August.

Last month, a South Texas man almost died after he was bitten by the head of a rattlesnake he’d just decapitated.

The incident happened May 27 as Milo and Jennifer Sutcliffe were doing yard work at their home near Lake Corpus Christi. Jennifer Sutcliffe said her husband found a 4-foot rattlesnake and hacked off its head with a shovel. As he bent down to pick up the remains, he was bitten by the severed head.

Sutcliffe said she called 911 and began driving her husband the 45 miles to a Corpus Christi hospital. He began having seizures, losing his vision and bleeding internally and was airlifted the rest of the way.

Sutcliffe said her husband needed 26 doses of antivenom, where a normal patient gets two to four.

The Associated Press contributed to this report