SACRAMENTO, Calif - A California man is in custody after being accused of biting a python in what police said was apparently an unprovoked attack on the pet snake of an acquaintance.

The suspect, David Senk, 54, was arrested on Thursday evening on suspicion of unlawfully maiming or mutilating a reptile, Sacramento police Sergeant Andrew Pettit said on Friday. The badly injured snake underwent surgery.

In a jailhouse interview aired on KOVR-TV in Sacramento, Senk said he had no recollection of the incident after having blacked out from drinking but felt "horrible as hell about it."

Asked why he might have bitten the snake, Senk replied: "I get drunk, I get crazy. I don't know. I've been an alcoholic for a long time."

Senk was taken into custody after police, responding to a report of an assault, found him lying on the ground with blood on his face. Officers were then approached by another man and a woman who told them Senk had just taken two large bites out of their python when they let him hold the snake, Pettit said.

"There was nothing to indicate that the snake provoked him at all. He (Senk) just out of the blue took a bite," the police spokesman said. "From what I understand, he didn't say anything. He was pretty incoherent."

The beige- and brown-colored snake, measuring 3 to 4 feet in length, was reported to be recovering after a veterinarian stitched up the reptile, Pettit said.

Senk said in the interview he was "not too fond of snakes (but) I try not to bite them."

"It's the other way around usually," he added. They bite me."