Scaly thief steals 100 chickens and ducks from farm in northeast Thailand

A four-metre-long python was caught red-handed stealing poultry from a farm in Udon Thani province in northeast Thailand yesterday. The fat snake devoured nearly 100 chickens and ducks in total, causing significant damage to the farmer.

The farmer, 58 year old Chaiwichit Sarito, was dumbstruck when chickens and ducks kept going missing from his farm day in and day out. The eggs were perpetually gnawed at too, he added. At first, Chaiwichit said he thought the culprit could be the next-door neighbour’s dog.

Nearly 100 animals went missing from the coup until yesterday, Chaiwichit finally understood what was happening. Unusually, the roosters were cockadoodle doo-ing loudly last night before Chaiwichit saw a frightened duck flee out of the coup and land in the pond.

The farmer’s jaw dropped when he walked into the coup to see a giant python hanging from the roof.

At 10pm, Udon Thani’s Sawang Metta Thammasat Rescue Unit received a request to help remove a large snake from a chicken coup in Ban Na Sai in Nong Bua subdistrict.

Snake catchers were greeted by Chaiwichit who led them to the giant python curled up on the rafters of the chicken coup, scoping out his next feathered victims.

The team caught the python and released it into nature far, far away from any farmyard animals. Lottery necks might want to know that Chaiwichit lives at house number 107. The next draw is on April 16.

In March, a farmer in Chon Buri found a five-metre-long python in his chicken coup after one of his chickens went missing. It only took snake catchers five minutes to get the snake into a sack after its meal.

One year ago, a python slithered into a bantam chicken coup in Ang Thong province in central Thailand. After feasting on eight chicks and two hens, the snake was so full that it couldn’t move and fell asleep, making it easy for rescue workers to catch and remove it.

Pythons are not venomous like cobras but have a nasty bite and can do serious damage based on size alone. In September last year, a python slithered into the Japan Building in Bangkok, Thailand, and was caught on camera biting a Royal Forest Department officer out of nowhere.

In October, a missing Indonesian woman’s body was found inside a giant python in the forest in Jakarta. The snake swallowed her whole.