Snakes On A Chihuahua

Described as 100 pounds of aggressive muscle a 16 foot python swallows a pet silky terrier-Chihuahua crossbreed in Queensland, Australia. A boy and girl, ages 5 and 7, watched in horror after coming upon the python when the family dog was already half-eaten.

The lady who was there threw some plastic chairs at the snake as this is an old bushmans method of killing snakes but she only had the dark green ones not the deadly white plastic kind.

Stuart Douglas, owner of the Australian Venom Zoo in Kuranda, said scrub pythons typically eat wild animals such as wallabies, a smaller relative of the kangaroo, but sometimes turn to pets in urban areas.

"It actively stalked the little rat-like dog for a number of days,"Douglas said.

"The family that owned the dog had actually seen it in the dog's bed, which was a sign it was out to get it," he added.

"They should have called me then, but the snake got away . It was three or four days later, that I was called and went around and removed it after the dog had been killed," Douglas said.

By the time Douglas arrived, all that could be seen of the dog was its hind legs and tail.

The Australian Venom Zoo manager, Todd Rose, said pythons squeeze their prey to death before swallowing it whole. The 5-year-old dog would have been suffocated within minutes.

Removing the half-swallowed dog could have harmed or even killed the python, Rose said, because dogs have sharp teeth and claws that could do the snake internal damage if it were wrenched out. The family especially the children were really worried about hurting the poor snake.

The snake was still digesting the dog at the zoo . It will soon be relocated to the bush and the dog will go with it.

In America Burmese pythons are slithering from Florida towards the Bay Area, these snakes can strangle and eat an entire alligator.

The snakes weigh up to 250 pounds and slither at a rate of 20 miles per month and one of them has already slithered about 100 miles towards San Francisco.

It is thought that there are 30,000 non-native giant snakes live in the Everglades, perhaps more. Some have begun appearing in areas outside the park.
The pythons from Florida could arrive in San Francisco as early as August 2020 eating rodents, pets and even humans along the way.

Owners releasing unwanted pet snakes into the wild is thought to be the reason why the environmental balance is being destroyed with these foreign species.