A Chinese man was taken to hospital after being bitten by a snake he had already killed and was planning to eat for a Lunar New Year meal, mainland media reported. A reflex in the jaws of the dead, non-venomous oriental ratsnake led to it biting the 60-year-old man as he was trying to skin it, the news website Qnsb.com reported. The man, surnamed Wang, had spotted the 70cm-long snake, about as thick as a man’s finger, curled up on the ground as he was taking a walk with his family on Saturday in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Wang thought the snake would make “some nice soup”, the report said. He killed the snake after hitting it with a stick and a stone and then took it home in a plastic bag. However, as he was trying to skin it a reflex in the snake’s jaws led to it biting his left hand.
