Monster Wedge-Tailed Eagle 'Tries to Rip Apart' Tiny Pet Dog
A terrified dog owner looked on in dismay as a monstrously large eagle grabbed his pet Chihuahua and tried to tear the pooch apart with its ferocious talons.
Mitch Bartlett, who lives in Kinglake, Australia, just northwest of Melbourne, described the moment to 3AW radio.
Bartlett said it was about 10 a.m. when he had gone down to the river near his family home, not realizing one of his dogs had followed him.
“I heard what sounded like a bird crying,” Bartlett said. “I hadn't really heard that noise before but being where we are, in the middle of a national park up here, there's all sorts of funny animal noises.”
He turned to walk back to the house when he noticed something in the corner of his eye. The bush rustled, which he thought may have been a fox.
“So I had a better look and realized it was a massive wedge-tailed eagle with what looked to have been a rabbit in its talons,” Bartlett said.
Then he realized something awful: It was one of his tiny pet Chihuahuas—weighing just 1.9kg—in the eagle’s grip.
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Wedge-tailed eagles, with wingspans of over two meters, are Australia’s largest birds of prey.
“As soon as I noticed that, I saw it and just ran straight at it yelling and screaming. Luckily enough, it dropped her,” Bartlett said.
“As you can imagine, she was pretty bloodied up, and her eyes just popping out of her head, and just going crazy.
“It had gone down and landed on the ground, landed on her, and had her in its claws, and was just like pecking at it with its beak and trying to rip it apart.”
The wedge-tailed eagle jumped up onto a fence post and stared at Bartlett as he tended to his injured dog.
“My wife had heard the commotion from up at the paddock and our other dog was running towards us. I was just screaming 'get the effing dog,'” Bartlett said.
A dog owner has told of his chihuahua's escape after it was attacked by a monster eagle in Kinglake. https://t.co/EifE4Futnr #7News pic.twitter.com/dPRPdJL0Wb
— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) April 3, 2018