Rattlesnake bite raises awareness at Walnut park

WALNUT – Soccer players at Walnut Ranch Park have been co-existing with snakes for years, but a recent bite has a few people rattled.

Chuck Steadward, 51, of Walnut, said he was trying to pin down baby rattlesnake with a trash grabber last month when it bit him on the hand. He had to be hospitalized overnight.

Steadward, an American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) board member, said the snakes are nothing new.

They come out in the evenings to warm themselves on concrete washes or gravel driveways and volunteers scour the fields before games to make sure children are safe, he said.

“They’re pretty common around here,” Steadward said. “We’re actually invading their territory – we’re right up against the hill and they come down sometimes.”

Parks and Recreation Commissioner Tom Pederson brought the issue of snakes up at a meeting last month to raise awareness, he said.

Aside from Steadward, no one else has had a run-in with the reptiles.

That’s not surprising, said Eric Dugan, a doctoral candidate at Loma Linda University who specializes in rattlesnakes.

Like many wild animals, rattlers generally avoid humans and only attack when they feel threatened and can’t escape.

“If rattling at you will keep you away that’s probably what they’ll do,” Dugan said. “If it’s cornered or feels like it has no other choice it will bite you like any other animal will.”

Southern Pacific rattlers are common

in the natural hillsides of Walnut and surrounding communities, Dugan said. They can grow to about 4 feet in length.

While it’s a myth that baby rattlers are more poisonous than adults, Dugan said younger snakes are more agile and active.

“Any encounter that involves you getting close is riskier with the little guys. It’s more likely going to result in someone getting nailed,” he said.

Rattlesnakes eat rodents and have regular hunting patterns, Dugan said. They’re more aggressive when out in the open because they feel vulnerable.

Mary Rooney, Walnut’s community services director, said the park has signs that warn about rattlesnakes, but the city is looking at ways to make people more aware of the venomous reptiles.

“I think caution is really the best method and they exercise tremendous caution,” she said. “We have gotten feedback that things are kind of how they’ve always been, except that one incident.”