By Rob Jennings | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
A New Jersey lawmaker who runs his family’s zoo in Sussex County is recovering after being bitten on his finger while feeding mice to rattlesnakes.
State Sen. Parker Space said he was bitten by the venomous snake around noon on Monday and received 14 vials of antivenom over the next two days at Newton Medical Center before he was flown on New Year’s Eve to a New York City hospital specializing in snake bites.
“It didn’t hurt at all to begin with. Then my finger started to swell up. Then it was double the size,” Space, a Republican, told NJ Advance Media on Thursday.
Space, 56, said that by Wednesday, the swelling of the middle finger on his left hand was subsiding and he was discharged from the hospital. He said he expects to make a full recovery.
On Thursday, he was back at Space Farms Zoo and Museum in Wantage and had resumed feeding the snakes, including one that bit him — an eastern massasauga rattlesnake, he said.
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