http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/wor...-snake-swallowed-14lb-pet-terrier--WHOLE.html
If this snake looks a little out of shape, there's a very good reason for its swollen tummy.
It's just swallowed a pet dog, together with its collar and name tag.
Owner Patty Buntine was mystified when her three-year-old Maltese terrier cross Bindi disappeared from her home in Katherine, in Australia's northern territory.
Enlarge
Stuffed: The lump bulging from this snake's belly appears to be tragic Bindi
But a quick maths calculation by a professional snake catcher soon provided the answer.
The 10-foot long olive python with the enormously bulging tummy weighed 35lb. Usually it would weigh about 21lb, meaning that whatever it had swallowed weighed 14lb - roughly the size of poor little Bindi.
There is one more piece of compelling evidence. Since the snake showed up in Ms Buntine's back yard Bindi hasn't been seen.
Bindi was a Maltese terrier like the one above (file photo)
'She didn't show up for her routine breakfast at 7am and because she was always there I got worried and went to look for her,' Ms Buntine told the Sunday Territorian newspaper.
'I went around the side of the house and that's when I found the snake. It couldn't move and had its head up in a striking position.
'Its belly was bulging - it looked like a great big coconut was inside it. I knew straight away that it had ate Bindi.
'I felt terrible - it's not very nice at all to think my little dog went that way.'
She described her dog as 'a little smarty pants, darting all over the place.'
In fact Bindi was so good at escaping bathtime that Ms Buntine is still trying to understand how she didn't know the snake was slithering up towards her.
Snake catcher David Reed agreed that Bindi was in the snake's stomach.
'I've had a lot of calls about dogs that have been bitten by snakes and I have even had an olive python that had eaten some new-born puppies, but never one like this,' he said.
He said the olive python - a species which are harmless to humans - had consumed 60 per cent of its body weight in a single meal.
'It is really amazing. It's equivalent to a 220lb man eating a 132lb steak.'
Once the snake has digested its canine meal, it will be released back into the wild - a long way from houses that have small pet dogs.
If this snake looks a little out of shape, there's a very good reason for its swollen tummy.
It's just swallowed a pet dog, together with its collar and name tag.
Owner Patty Buntine was mystified when her three-year-old Maltese terrier cross Bindi disappeared from her home in Katherine, in Australia's northern territory.
Enlarge
Stuffed: The lump bulging from this snake's belly appears to be tragic BindiBut a quick maths calculation by a professional snake catcher soon provided the answer.
The 10-foot long olive python with the enormously bulging tummy weighed 35lb. Usually it would weigh about 21lb, meaning that whatever it had swallowed weighed 14lb - roughly the size of poor little Bindi.
There is one more piece of compelling evidence. Since the snake showed up in Ms Buntine's back yard Bindi hasn't been seen.
'She didn't show up for her routine breakfast at 7am and because she was always there I got worried and went to look for her,' Ms Buntine told the Sunday Territorian newspaper.
'I went around the side of the house and that's when I found the snake. It couldn't move and had its head up in a striking position.
'Its belly was bulging - it looked like a great big coconut was inside it. I knew straight away that it had ate Bindi.
'I felt terrible - it's not very nice at all to think my little dog went that way.'
She described her dog as 'a little smarty pants, darting all over the place.'
In fact Bindi was so good at escaping bathtime that Ms Buntine is still trying to understand how she didn't know the snake was slithering up towards her.
Snake catcher David Reed agreed that Bindi was in the snake's stomach.
'I've had a lot of calls about dogs that have been bitten by snakes and I have even had an olive python that had eaten some new-born puppies, but never one like this,' he said.
He said the olive python - a species which are harmless to humans - had consumed 60 per cent of its body weight in a single meal.
'It is really amazing. It's equivalent to a 220lb man eating a 132lb steak.'
Once the snake has digested its canine meal, it will be released back into the wild - a long way from houses that have small pet dogs.
