A 60-year-old grandfather told Thursday how he wrestled a 4-metre-long python to save his pet dog from being crushed to death on a hiking trail in Hong Kong.
Canadian expatriate Robert Stearns stabbed the snake with an umbrella and tried to prise open its jaws before dragging it by its tail, DPA reported.
The snake grabbed Stearns' 18-month-old crossbreed dog Phoebe as the teacher walked his two pet canines on a trail in Hong Kong's rural New Territories district on May 23.
The snake had its unhinged jaws over the top of 15-kilogram Phoebe's head and was winding its body around her neck when Stearns reached the scene.
Burmese pythons are common in Hong Kong's New Territories, where they are thought to number in the hundreds, and generally crush their victims before ingesting them.
In a written account of the incident sent to the German News Agency dpa, Stearns from Ottowa said: "I bent the metal tip of my umbrella trying to repeatedly stab the body of the snake, and then I tried with all my might to unwind the coils."
"I tried to prise open its jaws to free Phoebe, but that was useless, too," Stearns said. "The snake was unbelievably strong. Finally, in desperation, I grabbed the snake's tail.
"Miraculously, as I pulled, the snake uncoiled like a garden hose about 4 metres long. ... Phoebe, now released from the snake's coils, managed to twist her head, sinking her own teeth into the snake."
Phoebe was later treated by a veterinarian who also bandaged one of Stearns' thumbs that was cut by the snake's teeth.
The attack took place on the same hiking trail where one large pet dog was killed in 2006 and another one rescued by its owner the following year.
Burmese pythons live for 20 to 30 years and are territorial, meaning the same snake could be responsible for all three attacks.
Stearns, who has three children and three grandchildren, said he did not want the python captured. "It's just trying to live its own life," he said.