Crocodile snaps up terrier after 10 years of taunts

A CROCODILE in Australia has eaten a small dog that had taunted it for a decade at a riverside lodge.

To the horror of guests who had gathered to watch the spectacle, as terrier Pippa ran at its head, Casey the saltwater crocodile did not scurry towards the water as it usually did.

Instead, Pippa’s owner, Kai Hansen, said the 11ft crocodile “did what crocs do” and clenched the dog in its teeth before returning to the water.

Mr Hansen runs the Goat Island Lodge, a ramshackle lodge on the crocodile-infested Adelaide River, south of Darwin in the Northern Territory.

He said that although he was “really sad”, he did not blame the 220lb crocodile for attacking his 15lb dog.

“It was something that had a high probability of happening some time,” Mr Hansen told ABC News. “She’s not doing something wrong – she’s just doing what crocs do. In the early days, she actually had a go at me a couple of times. These days I just throw food out from up the top and no one is allowed to walk down there.”

Guests captured footage of the dog being eaten, on which they could be heard gasping and yelling expletives. Mr Hansen said he could not bring himself to watch it.

Adam Britton, a crocodile expert, said the creature should not be destroyed and might not attack humans.

“The dog got right up close to the crocodile’s head,” Mr Britton told ABC News. “That basically triggers a reflex reaction, and a crocodile, if you get that close to its head, it doesn’t even think about it – it will just strike.”

Mr Britton said the incident was a reminder to people, particularly those with small dogs, to stay away from crocodile habitats.