A Chesterton, Indiana, man is facing charges for possessing a venomous snake after his own pet Western Diamondback rattlesnake bit him on the finger.
Robert Urbanski's snake bit him while he was handling it, and he was rescued by police and rescue personnel and taken to a hospital and then airlifted to the Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. He could now be charged with illegal possession of poisonous snakes.
The Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune reported Monday that officers from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources who went inside Urbanski's home found two rattlesnakes inside.
The 66-year-old man reportedly purchased the snakes, a Western Diamondback and a Dusty Pigmy rattlesnake, less than a week earlier at a swap meet in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
Urbanski did not have a permit for either of them. According to Indiana state law it is illegal to own venomous snakes without a permit.
