DEMING HEADLIGHT (New Mexico) 28 January 08 Local man bitten by pet rattlesnake (Kevin Buey)

A Deming man was reported in critical condition Friday morning at El Paso's Thomason Hospital.

James Bear was transferred there Thursday after being treated at Deming's Mimbres Memorial Hospital for a snake bite he received from a rattlesnake he kept.

Deming Police responded Thursday morning to a call in the 2000 block of East Pear Street. They reported Bear, 37, was bitten by a Canebrake Rattlesnake, one of many varieties and numbers of serpents caged in Bear's residence, according to Deming Police Chief Michael Carillo.

New Mexico Game and Fish was summoned, Carillo said, to determine if any laws — state or federal — had been broken, that perhaps Bear had permits for the snakes.

Carillo said the city has an ordinance prohibiting poisonous snakes.

The canebrake rattlesnake — sometimes known as the timber rattlesnake — is found in the southern United States, particularly, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Its venom is neurotixic — poisonous to nerves and nerve tissue.

The canebrake may be as big as 4 to 6 feet as an adult. Its habitat, according to littleriverresearch, an online information resource, is unpopulated areas, especially rocky hillsides, fields, woodland edges and swamps. It often hides in and under stumps and other woody surfaces, is active in day and night in cool but not cold weather. During hot summer months, it is most active at night. It feeds on rodents and other small mammals.
Local man bitten by pet rattlesnake

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