Man captures 17-foot anaconda, stores it in his bathtub after it eats neighbour's dog

Take that, dog-eater.

A 39-year-old math teacher in French Guyana recorded on video the capture of a 17-foot-long anaconda that had just eaten his friend’s dog.

“At first I was not scared because I thought it was smaller,” said Sebastien Bascoules, a French citizen who’s lived in French Guyana for 15 years. “But I was very surprised by his strength and length – more than five metres.”

The task quickly became a two-man job, but Bascoules said the massive snake was actually fairly tame.

“Because it was digesting the dog, it was very calm before I touched it.”

Bascoules, a self-proclaimed reptile fanatic, said he rushed to the river near Montsinery after hearing that the giant predator had eaten a friend’s dog.

“A friend phoned me and explained that his dog, Minus, had been eaten by an anaconda close to his house,” Bascoules explained to Barcroft Media. “Since I was 10 years old I have liked handling reptiles, but this was the biggest snake I had ever seen and I had ever caught.”

Because it was dusk by the time the snake was captured, Bascoules decided to keep the snake in his house overnight before releasing it in a river six miles away. After allowing his three children – Noam, 11, Solal, eight, and Mano, five – to interact with the beast, he put the snake in his home’s bathtub.

“My wife was worried it might escape from the bathroom during the night,” Bascoules said. “We didn’t have to be worried because I put a cloth on his head so it was blind and became like a big worm.”

The event happened last year, but the video footage has just been released. Bascoules says there are 98 species of snakes in French Guyana, but this is the biggest anaconda he’s come across.

“I have caught between 15 and 20 anacondas,” he said. “To capture a snake this size is a dream come true.”

(Photos via Sebastien Bascoules/Barcroft Media)