Pet dog crushed to death by python in second attack in two weeks

A pet dog has been crushed to death in front of its owner and her two young children in the second attack by a huge python in Sai Kung West Country Park in less than a fortnight.

Katie Heyring told of how her family pet, Charlie, was killed by the five-metre-long snake as she was out walking near Pak Tam Chung with son Kaspar, five, and daughter Kaia, seven, and their four other dogs on Saturday.

Heyring, an art dealer from Britain, said they had tried to fight off the huge python by hitting it with a walking stick, but when she realised her dog had died, she was forced to leave it in the snake's grip and return home with her children, aged five and seven, and other dogs.

The incident comes a fortnight after a couple fought off a python that had attacked their dog in the same country park. The spot is also very close to where three other such attacks on dogs - one of them fatal - have occurred since 2006.

Now Heyring, 41, is urging dog owners not to let their pets off the leash while out walking in the countryside. She said she and her children and pets were 20 minutes down a path that forked off from the Family Trail when the python struck.