It's a snake-eat-dog world: Another Australian python devours pet dog... this time in Queensland

  • Python swallows family's Maltese-Shih tzu cross 
  • Snake crept onto Whitsundays property and killed dog, Walter
  • Second time in one week a snake has eaten a dog in Australia

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 02:45 EST, 18 March 2014 | Updated: 06:09 EST, 18 March 2014



For the second time in a week, a python has swallowed a family pet in the backyard of an Australian home.

After last week's dog-swallowing incident in Caniaba, New South Wales, a snake has followed suit in Queensland's idyllic Whitsundays, the Daily Mercury reports.

Michelle Grigg says she found Walter, the family dog, in the belly of a python that had crept on to her property.

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Another one...? This python swallowed the Grigg family's beloved pooch Walter

Another one...? This python swallowed the Grigg family's beloved pooch Walter

Cringeworthy stuff: Michelle Grigg says she has been dealing with snakes on her property ever since she was a girl - but not like this

Cringeworthy stuff: Michelle Grigg says she has been dealing with snakes on her property ever since she was a girl - but not like this


'My husband went out on the road to look for him,' she said.

'I was standing out on our patio where we have big pot plants and I looked down at my feet and there was the snake.'

While she didn't seem terribly fussed, having dealt with snakes since she was a child, she admits her kids were more shaken up by the death of the Maltese-Shih tzu cross.

'I was very calm. I'm good in stressful situations,' she said.

'I woke them up for school and told them what had happened. They were absolutely devastated and my son wanted me to have killed it so he could have buried Walter.

'But I picked up the snake and relocated it.'

Heavy duty: Michelle Grigg carries the python from the back of her property, where it attacked and ate the family's dog Walter
Walter, the family dog, in happier times before he was attacked and eaten by a massive python

Michelle wrestles the python into a plastic container after it attacked and ate Walter (R), the family pet who was a gift from the children's aunt

Michelle's young children were devastated by the death of the family dog, a gift from their aunt

Michelle's young children were devastated by the death of the family dog, a gift from their aunt

Ms Grigg says her seven-year-old daughter didn't take the news well.

'This little dog was given to her as a gift from her aunty, it was her everything,' she told The Courier-Mail.

Last week a python swallowed a 'possum-sized' dog and a length of chain after pouncing on the pet pooch's kennel.

 

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Animal rescue volunteer Sue Ulyatt from the Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) said it was rare to see a snake swallow a dog.

'We’ve just checked our stats and it's actually only the second time in the last ten years that we know of,' she said last week.

'It's usually the other way around; the snake comes off second best.'

Now that's twice in one week.

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Poor dog tied up to a kennel, didn't stand a chance. Why do people treat their poor dogs this way ??

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Poor baby x

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She seems to find it quite amusing.

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Poor little dog.

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Should have killed it; it could be a baby next time.

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The snakes are growing some bigger balls nowadays it seems! Poor little pup!

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When will these people learn that keeping a dog outside , when snakes and other animals are about , will only end in disaster.

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Aah we're trying to relocate to oz at the moment and I was scared about taking my pomeranian but now Im terrified...she's my baby!!

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Do as in South Africa. Surround with a high fence with chicken mesh all the way in inside and razor wire on the top and bottom -Make sure electronic gates for cars are also chicken meshed on inside and razor wire on top and at bottom/sides- keeps all the nasty's off your property. Trim all overhanging trees- so drops into property from those- Bait for rats, block roofs for Bats. We have plenty of those Pythons regularly around here, even iguanas,crocodiles if you are near dams /rivers.

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Any way we could introduce these snakes into the UK? There are a lot of those annoying little dogs here that could do with being eaten.

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This happens all the time. Unfirtunately it is not an event here. These snakes are about during the day and fido can't even go out for a pee without getting snaffled.

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