Peggy Jones says she feels like the "luckiest person alive" after surviving the grisly attack with just a bloodied and bruised arm.
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions and/or images of violent, disturbing, or otherwise potentially distressing events.
Twitter/@SydneyDoesNewsPeggy Jones displays her bandaged arm after being attacked by both a snake and a hawk at the same time.
A woman from Silsbee, Texas is feeling lucky to be alive after a bizarre incident that occurred while she was mowing her lawn left her bloodied and bruised.
According to The Washington Post, Peggy Jones was mowing her six-acre property around 8 p.m. on July 25, 2023, when a snake fell onto her arm, apparently out of the sky.
In a video interview with Click2Houston, Jones recalled the harrowing experience, saying the snake appeared “out of the clear blue.”
“I began to sling the snake off of my arm,” the 64-year-old woman continued, “and he wrapped around my arm and just held on tighter… He kept striking in my face. He was striking my glasses.”
While Jones tried to remove the snake, which she estimated to be four feet long, the situation got even worse. A brown and white hawk suddenly swooped out of the sky and began attacking Jones’ arm, trying to pull the slithering reptile off for itself. She believes the bird may have dropped the snake from the sky and was desperate to take back its dinner.
“He grabbed the snake and tried to take the snake off, but I guess he didn’t have a good grip,” Jones told Click2Houston. “He came down about four times.”
Jones recalled, “I just kept saying, ‘Help me, Jesus! Help me, Jesus!'”
Though the attack lasted only seconds, it seemed like an “eternity” to Jones. “Finally, [the hawk] got the snake and took off,” she said. “I looked down and I was covered in blood.”
Peggy Jones’ arm was covered in lacerations from the hawk’s sharp talons — and she still wasn’t sure whether or not she’d been bitten by the snake. She quickly drove the tractor back toward her house, “screaming hysterically” the whole time.
Her husband, Wendell, who had been mowing the front of the property at the time of the attack, heard her cries and ran over to investigate. He wasn’t able to understand what she was saying, but he helped her into their truck and drove her 15 minutes to the closest emergency room, per The Washington Post.
By the time they got to the hospital, Peggy Jones had calmed down enough to explain to her husband and the doctors what had happened. “I think [the doctors] kind of thought I might have been on drugs,” she recalled, “because they asked my daughter and my husband what kind of drugs I was taking.” Even Wendell was in disbelief, stating, “I’m thinking she’s still in hysterics.”
After confirming that there were no illicit substances involved in the incident, doctors started patching Jones’ wounds. In addition to the bloody scratches from the hawk, Jones’ arm was bruised from where the snake had wrapped tightly around it. Thankfully, there were no bite marks from the unidentified snake — though the creature got uncomfortably close to its target.
Facebook/Jacey-Kay CarterPeggy Jones suffered deep lacerations from the hawk’s talons and extensive bruising from the snake wrapping tightly around her arm.
“I discovered the lens on my glasses was broken and there was snake venom on my glasses,” Jones told Click2Houston.
Jones had been bitten by a venomous snake two years prior while clearing another property, so she was grateful she didn’t have to suffer through the painful recovery process yet again. Now, she’s facing quite a different type of recovery.
“It was scary and very traumatic,” Jones told 12 News in Silsbee. “I think I just went into survival mode.”
To The Washington Post, Jones added, “I think I’ll always have some fears. It’s probably been the most terrifying thing that’s ever happened in my life.”
And while many people have called Jones unlucky for being attacked by a snake and a hawk at the same time, she disagrees: “I feel like the luckiest person alive to have survived this!”
After reading about the Texas woman who was attacked by a snake and a hawk at the same time, learn about the woman who was killed by feral hogs in her Texas yard. Then, go inside the story of the missing grandmother who was found inside the belly of a 22-foot python.
