MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) - A 53-year-old welder on Merritt Island couldn't wait for animal control to handle a six-foot rattlesnake. Instead, Robert Tyler took care of it himself.

Tyler spotted the diamondback rattler Wednesday while driving, then stalked it.

He said he came up behind the snake, pinned its head and cut it off with a knife.

The man, who says he has also wrestled the occasional alligator, did it to protect his neighbors. The snake was headed for a home where a woman lived with several small kittens.

Tyler knew it would've been gone by the time animal services got there.

"I couldn't take that chance," Tyler says.

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