ZombieChatter.com

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — A 16-foot python stalked a family dog for days before swallowing the pet whole in front of horrified children in the Australian tropics, animal experts said Wednesday.

The boy and girl, aged 5 and 7, watched as the scrub python devoured their silky terrier-Chihuahua crossbreed Monday at their home near Kuranda in Queensland state.

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 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 and three or four days later, 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 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.

“The lady who was there threw some plastic chairs at the snake, but you’ve got to remember that this is about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of aggressive muscle,” Rose said.

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 snake was still digesting the dog at the zoo Wednesday. It will soon be moved to the bush, Douglas said.

When you have small children and pets, and a python starts hanging around…it’s time to call the Rodent Wrangler.  I mean come on, all the warning signs were in place for someone to act in advance on this but I guess the “that would never happen” mentality kicked in.  No sympathy from me on this one.  This family is lucky that all he got was the dog instead of chilling out at the zoo digesting the 2 kids right now.

BEIJING, China (AP) — A wild elephant in southern China picked up an American tourist with its trunk and threw him in the air, causing the man to suffer from fractured ribs and stomach injuries, an official said Monday.

Jeremy Allen McGill, who teaches English in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, was found unconscious around dusk on Thursday at the “Wild Elephant Valley” nature reserve in the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan province.

“It wasn’t clear why he was attacked,” said an official with the Xishuangbanna foreign affairs office who would give only his surname, Chen.

McGill’s abdomen and lungs were “seriously injured” and he had broken ribs, Chen said. He was hospitalized and had stitches up to 40 centimeters (15 inches) long on his stomach, said Chen, who had no details on McGill’s hometown.

 I don’t know what they mean when they say “It wasn’t clear why he was attacked”.  He was in “Wild Elephant Valley”…in China where safety always comes first.  ‘Nuf said.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) — An escaped tiger killed a zoo patron and injured two others in a cafe at the San Francisco Zoo Tuesday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Fire Department told CNN.

A San Francisco Zoo visitor attacked by an escaped tiger is carried away on a stretcher.

Both of the injured were transported to San Francisco General Hospital, Fire Department Lt. Mindy Talmadge said.

Police shot and killed the tiger, she added.

The two injured men, aged 19 and 23, were in serious but stable condition with multiple lacerations, said Dr. Eric Isaacs.

“I believe there was probably some blood loss at the zoo, but here they are talking, they are alert, their vital signs are stable at this time,” Isaacs said. Both men could be released as early as Wednesday, he added.

Authorities were notified of an escaped tiger around 5:15 p.m. PT (0115 GMT), shortly after the zoo’s 5 p.m. closing time, Talmadge said.

“Apparently right around closing time — there was a pen with four tigers in it — one of the tigers got out,” Talmadge said. “The tiger went into a cafe at the zoo and attacked a patron. That person ended up dying at the scene.”

Police arrived on the scene, as the tiger attacked two other patrons, Talmadge said.

“They shot the tiger, and the tiger is deceased,” she said.

The 125-acre zoo was locked down after the incident, and all the facility’s other animals were accounted for, including three other tigers that had been in the same enclosure with the escaped tiger, Talmadge said.

Initially, officials feared some or all of the other tigers may have escaped but later determined they had not, Talmadge said.

Police, fire and zoo officials were on the scene investigating, Talmadge said.

The 78-year-old zoo has Siberian tigers and rarer and smaller Sumatran tigers. It was not clear which subspecies of tiger was involved in the incident.

A year ago, one of the zoo’s Siberian tigers attacked a keeper during a public feeding. The keeper survived and recovered from her injuries.

California’s Division of Occupation Safety and Health later determined that the zoo was at fault because of hazardous conditions in the Lion House and lack of specialized safety training for employees.

The zoo made changes ordered by the OSH, and the Lion House was closed for more than six months after that incident.

 So…these guys were attacked at the zoo cafe.  My guess is that the Lion attacked them for taking more than 4 words to order their “lattes”.  The correct way to order at a “cafe” is “coffee…..regular”