Snake City

The other day I was searching the Internet looking for dog walkers. Alarmingly I came across this blog post from a couple of years ago which said that a python squeezed a little dog to death in the River Valley area - my neighbourhood.

Before having a total freak out I thought I should do a bit more digging around to see if this was actually true or urban myth.

And guess what? Yes it's true!

Those living in Singapore might remember the incident from back in 2006 but for everyone else, here's the first part of the article from the Straits Times:


Python squeezes pet dog to death at River Valley condo

By Lee Hui Chieh & Chong Chee Kin

MISS Glenda Liu's evening walk with her boyfriend's two dogs turned into a nightmare on Wednesday, when a 3.5m python emerged from the darkness and wound itself around seven-year-old Jack Russell terrier Bella, crushing the animal to death.

Police, responding to a call about a woman in distress at the Aspen Heights condominium in River Valley Road, arrived at the scene without appropriate tools to deal with the snake.

The officers spent 20 minutes prising Bella from the snake's grip with a golf club, but it managed to give them the slip and slithered away. By then, the dog was already dead.


First thing that entered my head on reading this was that the police used a golf club?? WTF?

Second was  - what the hell?! Now I am freaking out as I have images like this one running through my mind!

It didn't help that I then read some comment in a forum which mentioned that apparently there had been reports of snakes in neighbouring Malaysia dropping out of trees, stunning their victims and strangling them.

Reports like this are obviously few and far between but you can imagine how paranoid I was yesterday when we took our dog out for a walk yesterday. I was eyeing every bush and tree with great suspicion.

And it didn't help when I then found the following:

A)  A video of the police catching a python out of the drainage system in Eunos.

B) Someone saying on a forum that a friend of hers found a nest of baby cobras in her storage room. Can you imagine these baby cobras in your house? WAH!

C) A video of some people trying and succeeding to capture a python out of a swimming pool. Actually while a pretty frightening thought, the running commentary from the lady makes this one quite funny!



OK so the chances of you being party to any of the above are very slim, and while Singapore is not Snakes on A Plane it's a reminder that as cosmopolitan as this island may seem, when you live in Singapore you're living in the tropics, so there's still a chance that we'll be reminded that we're sharing the land here with indigenous creatures such as these every now and then.