Owner of Boa That Ate Dog Tells His Story

Armed with a photo album containing pictures of the reptilian love of his life, Angus Johnson on Thursday attempted to tell his side of a bizarre incident that left a pet Chihuahua dead and his 9-foot boa constrictor awaiting her fate in a Chatsworth animal shelter.

Dressed in a black Ozzy Osbourne T-shirt and shorts, Johnson seemed a little out of place in the trendy restaurant he and his lawyers chose for their news conference but said it was a cooler setting than his hot house in West Hills and closer to local television studios.

Still, Johnson protested he was uncomfortable during what he described as his first moment in the public spotlight.

“The media has created the publicity, this is blown way out of proportion.” He said he called his own news conference after he was “slogged as a coldblooded monster” by Flossie Torgerson, the Chihuahua’s owner.

Johnson’s pet snake Alissss, named after heavy-metal rock star Alice Cooper, crawled out an open door of his house one night during last week’s heat wave into Torgerson’s enclosed patio down the block. As a horrified Torgerson looked on, Alissss swallowed her pet Chihuahua, Babette, whole.

Johnson said he tried to apologize to Torgerson, but the grieving pet owner misunderstood him on the phone as saying “I want my baby back,” in reference to the guilty snake. Johnson said he never said that but only offered his condolences. “I knew I had to call her to apologize. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life, and it wasn’t because Alissss was gone.”

But Torgerson, reached by telephone late Thursday, maintained Johnson didn’t apologize when he called her.

“He’s lying, lying, lying,” she said. “I’m sitting here alone tonight wishing I had my little dog Babette. I used to pet her and hold her and love her.”

Johnson, 37, who makes a living as a $6-an-hour telemarketer, said he’s been wearing the same pair of five-day contact lenses since he moved to Los Angeles in March. Despite his humble means, he said he’s determined to replace Babette.

He and his fellow rock band members are trying to organize a benefit concert to raise money for a new dog for Torgerson and donate anything left over to a local animal shelter.

After all the apologies and pledges to make amends, however, Johnson said he wants his snake back and vowed to fight for its return alive.

“I need all the help I can to get my baby back,” he said, adding that he got a screen door earlier this week to prevent Alissss from ever escaping again.

But Alissss’ future with Johnson is uncertain. The city’s Department of Animal Regulation has yet to decide if the snake can return to its owner.

R. Jeffery Ward, one of Johnson’s lawyers, said the legal team is ready for a court battle, if necessary, to get the snake back.