Terrifying video of python wrapping around family's puppy in backyard
A nine-week-old puppy had a close call after it was attacked by a carpet python in a Queensland backyard.
Security vision from the van Schouwen family backyard in Sippy Downs, on the Sunshine Coast, shows the newest member of the family, Jasper the puppy, happily exploring his new backyard when a python suddenly springs from the bushes and coils itself around the small animal.
The two struggle for a few seconds and just as Jasper seems to give in and roll over, Michelle van Schouwen and her daughter heard him “yelping” and came running out to his rescue.
“It was a confronting scene to find the snake completely wrapped around Jasper as he yelped for help,” the family wrote on YouTube alongside the video.
Ms van Schouwen grabs a cardboard roll from Christmas wrapping paper and tries to bat the snake away before realising the cardboard was “useless and we would need to pull the snake off by hand”.
She can be seen slightly off camera as she swings it around desperately trying to free Jasper from the snake’s body.
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“The carpet python was reluctant to let the puppy go and the security vision shows how quickly it immobilised our active pup,” the family explained.
As they manage to pry the snake from Jasper, the snake is flung across the yard and the family rushed the puppy indoors to check for injuries.
“Thankfully Jasper received only minimal injuries and hopefully this incident reminds others to keep a close eye on their pets,” the family wrote on YouTube.
Ms van Schouwen wrote on Facebook she was grateful the snake wasn’t bigger.
“I was thankful it wasn’t one of the really big ones that visit our yard as it was challenging enough getting this sized one off Jasper,” she wrote.
And being an experienced Queenslander, Ms van Schouwen was relieved when she recognised the snake wasn’t venomous.
“At least I knew it was non-venomous and in a stroke of luck I was able to grab it just behind the head and stop it from biting, although Jasper had some bite marks to his ear and one on the neck,” she wrote.
Ms van Schouwen’s daughter Mikaela described the incident as “tense” to WIN News Sunshine Coast, adding: “It was just adrenaline within me, it just kicked in and I just helped out.”
The python also escaped uninjured, the family said.
The family have since posted video updates of adorable Jasper on YouTube, who after a bit of rest was back to his mischievous self, attacking random household objects and playing with his new family.
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