Posted on 11/16/2011 9:14:53 AM PST by Mikey_1962
A South African farmer has been killed by the pet hippopotamus he raised from the age of five months, and which he once described as being 'like a son' to him. Humphrey the Hippo gouged owner Marius Els, 41, to death by repeatedly biting him in a vicious attack on Saturday night. The farmer's mutilated body was discovered submerged in a river running through his 400-acre farm in rural South Africa. Only earlier this year Mr Els, who was married, was pictured happily riding on his 1,200kg pet bull hippo's back. 'Humphrey's like a son to me, he's just like a human,' he said at the time. '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.' Mr Els kept 20 different species of exotic animals, including giraffe and rhino, on his farm near Klerksdorp in South Africa's north west. But he developed a special fondness for Humphrey, whom he bought aged just five months and for whom he even built a special lake. Humphrey was aged six and weighed more than a metric tonne when he attacked Mr Els. While Mr Els appeared to revel in his status as the man who had tamed a hippo, he did recognise his pet's power and danger. 'If he decides to get me off his back, then he throws me over like a horse', Mr Els told an interviewer before his death, adding: 'My friends won't even go near him.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Another not so subtle reminder that an animal is an animal, no matter what Disney tells you.
Kind of taps the brakes for those kids who “Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.”
he looks so happy, so full of life in those pictures.
Not the evil babysitter.
Bwa-haha
Hippopingamous
As they say in showbiz - don’t work with children or animals.
Maybe if he would have named him “Hubert Humphrey” this wouldn’t have happened. the hippo would have been too happy walk over anyone.
sorry, that the dumbest thing I have ever typed on FR.
Rename it: Darwin
Not anymore.
“I have a relationship with the most dangerous animal in Africa.”
####
I thought that title was held by the Rhinoceros.
Now keeping company with Steve Irwin and Timothy Treadwell.
It was reported-—after the friend of a woman was mutilated by the woman’s pet gorilla-—that tame young animals mature into viscious dangerous older pets.
They should be placed in a zoo or elsewhere-—not in a home.
I suspect this will become a movie shortly.
Never “borrow” your hippo’s rubber duck.
“Like a son...”
Apparently the feeling was not mutual.
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