“She’s game for picking it up and spinning the snake but honestly, I was waiting for the dog or father to get bitten. It was risky,” Richards said.
“I definitely would not suggest it.”
Richards said there was a far safer and simpler solution to get a snake to release a pet from its mouth.
“I’ve got a collection at home and if a python bites you, you get a spray bottle of water and spray them on the nose and eyes and they generally let go straight away,” he said.
“That’s all we do, and it’s safe for both parties involved. You don’t need to be hanging onto a snake because when you grab the tail like that, it puts you at risk of getting bitten yourself.”
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Chantelle May Derez, a University of Queensland PhD candidate whose thesis is on snake relocation, said she was surprised the python ventured into a backyard with a dog at home.
“It is a quite young snake, so I don’t think it would’ve potentially been able to eat the guinea pig, but it was looking for an opportunistic feed. I’m surprised the dogs didn’t scare it off,” she said.
Nonetheless, Derez urged guinea pig owners not to allow their pets to roam uncontained and unsupervised. She suggested snake-proof enclosures to protect pets from roaming snakes.