A once-powerful Siberian husky breathes its last breaths as it lies helplessly in the death grip of a 38-pound python after the serpent slithered into a Florida family's backyard and coiled around its neck.
Duke's owners called emergency services just after 10pm when they saw the 10-foot African rock python coiled around their 60-pound pet's neck on August 30.
But within five minutes, he was dead.
The news comes after a rock python that had escaped from a Canadian pet store killed two sleeping boys, Noah and Connor Barthes, last month.
It is not known when the python slid into the family's backyard, in an area southeast of Tamiami Trail and Krome Avenue in Miami where a colony of snakes had been breeding.
The homeowner, who refused to give her name, told CBS Miami her son tried to kill the snake.
'He tried to take it [the snake] away from his [Duke's] neck with his hands, his bare hands,' she said.
'It was so strong, he couldn't do it. He ran out inside, he got gardening scissors. He tried to cut it off. It didn't work.'
The woman said she had never seen anything like it in 10 years of living in the area near the Everglades.
'Be careful, especially with young kids, because something that big can kill a kid,' she said.
Seifert's co-star, Captain Jeff Fobb of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s Venom One unit, said firefighters discovered two bite wounds on the python's neck, raising questions about who struck first.
'It’s difficult to tell if the snake attacked the dog,' he said.
'A snake would’ve had trouble eating a dog that size, so it might’ve been a defensive move [after the dog attacked the snake]'.