Owner Claims Chihuahua Eaten by Boa

A day after seeing her beloved Chihuahua devoured by a 7 1/2-foot-long boa constrictor, a 74-year-old West Hills woman launched a campaign to outlaw exotic animals in residential neighborhoods.

“I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” said Jackie Torgerson on Sunday. “It could have gone after someone’s kid.”

At a news conference at a Chatsworth animal shelter where the snake was taken, Torgerson displayed photographic evidence that the snake ate Babette, a longhaired Chihuahua.

Animal control authorities said they believe that the snake that crawled into her enclosed patio was someone’s pet. The unknown owner will not face charges, although it is illegal to own a boa constrictor without a permit, they said.

Peter Persic, a spokesman for the Department of Animal Regulation, said, “It appears that the snake did eat the dog, based on the photographs. . . . It’s not unusual for boas to escape, but fortunately we don’t get calls very often that they’ve eaten a pet.”

If the snake is not claimed in five days, it will be donated to the Los Angeles Zoo or to the Wildlife Way Station, he said.

Babette--Torgerson’s closest companion since her husband died nine years ago--”was the sweetest little thing you ever seen. . . . We were totally inseparable all the time.”