Hipopotamus mauled owner
Royalty Club
A hippopotamus named Humphrey has mauled to death a South African man
who kept him for a pet, Beeld newspaper has reported. The 1200kg hippo
bit 40-year-old army major Marius Els, dragged him into the water and
killed him, the paper said. The incident happened on Saturday at the
Vaal River near Els's farm in the Free State province in central South
Africa.
Humphrey, who is about six-years-old, was rescued as a calf during a
flood on the river and had been raised as a pet. In a video posted
online in March [Click Here to watch video clip], Els feeds Humphrey
apples, swims with him and rides on his back. "I call him and he
immediately responds to come and play with me. I feed him apples. He
opens his mouth. Big jaws, and teeth like this," Els says in the
video. "It's a little bit dangerous but I can swim with him. I go in
the water. He allows me to get on his back and I ride him like a
horse. He swims with me." The video ends with Humphrey tossing Els
from his back into the water.
This and similar stories really serve to highlight the serious dangers
inherent in dealing with potentially dangerous animals.