A farmer in South Africa has been killed by his pet hippopotamus, after repeated warnings that it was a wild animal that could never be tamed.There is a lesson here.Marius Els, 40, an army major, was bitten to death by the 1.2 tonne hippo he christened Humphrey and tried to domesticate on a farm in Free State province.
Els's savaged body was found submerged in the river where, years earlier, the hippo had been rescued from a flood. It grew too big for the people who adopted it and was bought by Els at the age of five months, becoming a pet on his 400-acre farm and learning to swim with humans.
Earlier this year, Els was photographed riding on the five-year-old hippo's back. "Humphrey's like a son to me, he's just like a human," he said. "There's a relationship between me and Humphrey and that's what some people don't understand.
"They think you can only have a relationship with dogs, cats and domestic animals. But I have a relationship with the most dangerous animal in Africa."
Monday, October 23, 2023
Do not Adopt a Wild Animal
2011 story:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
If your own child grew to the size of a Hippo, it might accidentally kill you too, babies do bite their parents sometimes. Scale is kind of a thing. If a house cat grew to the size of a tiger, yes, it could accidentally kill you just by playing to hard.
Post a Comment