Snake Bites Baby As Teachable Moment: Report

SEBRING, FL — A Florida mom’s alleged decision to let a red rat snake bite her 1-year-old daughter as a teachable moment has reportedly sparked an investigation by the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman, who lives in rural Sebring, reportedly posted a video of the encounter on Facebook and then took it down. Patch reached out to the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office, but officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The mother, who is not being identified since no charges have been announced, told ABC Action News that the snake had bitten her and her son without leaving marks.

Get the Patch newsletter and alerts in your inbox.

“So, I thought it was a good opportunity to introduce her without actually getting hurt,” ABC quoted the mother as saying.

The woman told the station the snake’s teeth were too small to puncture her daughter’s skin. She also said considering their rural environment, she thinks it is important for her children to learn how to handle wildlife and what to stay away from.

This isn’t the first time a Florida mom has made headlines for allegedly teaching lessons that backfired. Last year, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office charged a mother with unsafe storage of a firearm after she suffered a gunshot wound.

See also: Pro-Gun Mom Shot By 4-Year-Old Son, Deputies Say

Jamie Gilt, the founder of the now-defunct Jaime Gilt for Gun Sense Facebook community, was shot while driving a pickup truck and horse trailer on Rowland Avenue around 3 p.m. March 8, 2016, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said. The shooter, the agency said, was her son, 4, who was in the truck's backseat.

Before the shooting, Gilt posted extensively on her Facebook page about gun owner rights and also wrote about her son's shooting abilities. Some of her posts included links to gun rights articles and memes related to the topic.

Gilt was hospitalized following the shooting, and an investigation into just how the 4-year-old got his hands on the gun kicked off. That investigation showed that “Jamie placed the gun, which was not in a holster, under the front seat of the truck,” a statement from the sheriff's office said. “Sometime during her drive, the gun apparently slid back to the rear floorboard, below where her 4-year-old son was seated in a booster seat.”

Family members told deputies the boy had recently learned to unbuckle himself from the booster seat. “Investigators discovered the child removed himself from the seat, presumably to grab a toy from the floorboard, saw the gun, picked it up and accidentally fired through the rear of the driver seat, striking Jamie.”

In May 2016, Gilt struck a deal to avoid prosecution. Under that agreement, she was required to complete a gun safety course within 90 days. She also had to show the state proof of a “new mounted holster, demonstrating safe storage of a firearm in the vehicle” court documents said. She was also ordered to give 10 speeches related to the incident “and the need to safely secure firearms.”

To find out more about the Sebring incident, read the full story on ABC Action News.

Image via Shutterstock