First the guinea pig, then the cat, now pet dog swallowed

An Australian couple fears for their children's safety after a 5m python devoured their dog in front of them, just weeks after other snakes killed their cat and guinea pig.

Daniel Peric, from Kuranda said he now would not leave his two children, aged five and seven, alone in any part of the house, after the "enormous" python ate his silky terrier-cross chihuahua on Monday.



"Actually watching it unfold before your eyes was pretty gut wrenching," he said. "We'd had the dog about five years, so it was part of the family."

Mr Peric said in the weeks before, the family had found their cat's body, which looked like something had attempted to swallow it and on Sunday a smaller python had eaten their pet guinea pig.



Australian Venom Zoo owner Stuart Douglas took the call from the distressed Peric family on Monday night and arrived to remove the scrub python within 20 minutes. Mr Douglas said by the time he arrived, all that could be seen of the dog was its back legs and tail. It only took about 30 minutes to eat the dog, but it will be digesting it for two days," he said.

Mr Douglas said pythons were amazing animals that belonged in the Far North but people needed to be aware that pets were potential prey. "These pythons used to feed on wallabies but now they feed on cats and dogs in suburbia," he said. "This python actively stalked their dog."