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 ...
Hungry Hungry Hippos - The Movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTSpNa06lxs
Just by looking at this guy’s picture, you can ascertain he a problem with discerning prudent choices in life.
If your son was one of the Melendez Brothers, that is.
I can find no reference to children, perhaps an applicant for the Darwin Award?
LOL
**I suspect this will become a movie**
Animal Planet has an eye-opening series: Fatal Attraction; which describes animal hoarders who believe they have some mystical ability to overcome the natural predatory instincts of exotic animals.
Very troubling obsession.
>>>I suspect this will become a movie shortly.<<<
Nah, probably just an episode of “Fatal Attractions” on Animal Planet.
That reminded me of Henrietta Hippo from “The New Zoo Review”.
He may have raised it but things change when a wild animal reaches adolescence. At that point they no longer care/recognize who raised it. They are programmed to fight for dominance and will challenge their fathers, brothers, uncles, whatever to achieve it. Human “parents” of wild animals who don’t understand that pay the consequences.
Soemthing tells me that the cause of death may have been the drowning. The Hippo may have tried to revive Els by biting or trying to pick him up...after he had drowned.
It doesn't work, not pure wolf.
And a hippo's teeth are a lot bigger.
‘Humphrey’s like a son to me’
Animal consciousness necessitates patricide. Consequences, man, consequences.
So....this would be a hippo patricide??
Kinda like Gaddafi and Obama.
In terms of human deaths the most dangerous animal in Africa would be the mosquito.
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