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Animals can make great pets, especially when they are cute and cuddly. But oftentimes, they can injure people severely – or even lead to consequences. Here are top 10 gruesome attacks caused by animals. Unfortunate accidents, zoo animal attacks, and pets that turn…including pythons, dogs, and of course, let’s not forget Steve Irwin!
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Transcript provided by YouTube:
Animals can make great pets, especially when they are cute and cuddly.
But oftentimes, they can injure people severely – or even lead to fatal consequences.
Here are 10 gruesome deaths caused by animals.
Number 10: King Alexander I of Greece In 1920, the Greek Alexander I was walking
around his estate, when a monkey bit him.
The palace steward had Barbary macaque, an old Asian breed of monkey, and he kept them
in the palace’s grapevines.
According to the story, the King tried to defend his dog, attacked by a monkey.
But it could have easily been the other way around – maybe the dog saw the monkey and
went after it.
Either way, when King Alexander approached the animals, in order to separate them…he
was bitten on the torso and the leg.
The servants came and managed to chase off the monkey, but by that time, the damage had
been done.
The King’s wound was immediately cleaned by the doctor, however, for some reason, the
decision was made not to cauterized it.
Not wanting to seem silly or clumsy, King Alexander refused to issue any news on what
had actually happened.
But in the evening of the very day of the attack, the King’s wounds got infected.
A terrible fever ensued, and sepsis started developing.
The King’s doctors were thinking about leg amputation as a possible remedy, but they
were too afraid of the potential consequences of such act.
Two weeks later, Alexander I of Greece became delirious, and he died of the monkey attack
induced sepsis.
Number 9: Darla Napora Darla Napora was found in her California home…her
body was soaking in blood and she wasn’t breathing.
When her husband arrived home from work, he found her laying on the floor in that condition.
It turned out that poo Darla was mauled to death by her pet dog.
The husband later said that, when he had arrived at his home, his wife was on the floor, in
blood…and their pet pit bull was at her side.
When the police came, and officers started investigating…the dog tried to escape through
the back door.
The policemen managed to shoot the animal down before it attacked anyone.
What adds to the tragedy of this event is the fact that late Darla was a strong advocate
against the poor perception of pit bulls.
She even belonged to an organization whose whole goal is to fight for the rights and
recognition of the breed.
Darla’s widower, Greg is still an advocate for the Pit Bull Breed, and refuses to blame
the dog.
He said that the dog wasn’t dangerous at all, and that he sees no reason why it would do
such a thing.
Number 8: Timothy Treadwell.
In the autumn of 2003, Timothy Treadwell, a bear enthusiast, and his girlfriend went
to Katmai National Park in Alaska.
They set up camp near a salmon-rich river, where many of the grizzlies roamed and fed.
But the bears were more aggressive that they usually are, because they were struggling
to gain as much fat before the upcoming winter.
On October 6, when an air pilot came to pick up Treadwell and his girlfriend, they were
nowhere to be found.
The pilot then decided to summon the park rangers and, soon after the search for the
two missing people started, their butchered remains were found.
A video camera was recording the final moments of Treadwell and his girlfriend.
But the lens cap was on, so it only recorded the audio.
Filmmaker Werner Herzog later made the film Grizzly Man, about the life and work of Timothy
Treadwell, and the agonizing screams of two people were left out of Herzog’s film out
of respect.
While the rangers were retrieving the dead bodies, they located and shot two of the grizzlies
that were believed to have been responsible for the attack.
The rangers claimed that the horrific event was the first known killing of a human by
a bear…in the 85-year history of the Katmai National Park.
Number 7: Bryan Jeffrey Griffin.
Bryan Jeffrey Griffin, a 12-year-old boy, was swimming in Dead River in Lake County,
Florida.
It was a Wednesday night, and Griffin was there with his friends.
Unbeknownst to them, they had chosen to swim close to a spot where people used to feed
alligators.
A friend off shore noticed something in the water, and realized it was not just one, but
several alligators.
They started screaming, and called Griffin to get out of the water right away.
But it was too late.
One of the alligators got the boy by the jaw, started throwing him around, then and pulled
him under the water.
Some people in the nearby marina saw what was happening and tried to rescue the boy,
but he was soon gone below the water level.
He was under water around 20 minutes, when local rescuers came for him, and one of the
rescuers jumped into the river…managing to pull Griffin out, and carry him to a boat.
Unfortunately, when the boy reached the hospital, though, the doctors couldn’t do anything and
the boy was pronounced dead on arrival.
Number 6: Stephan Miller Stephan Miller was a stunt double and an animal
trainer.
While he was shooting a promo video Miller was killed by a grizzly called Rocky…a bear
actor trained for wrestling with humans.
Miller was supposed to wrestle Rocky for a commercial shoot, but prior to this, Miller
had never worked with Rocky, but decided to do the shoot because he was an experienced
trainer.
The plan for the shooting was to film the two as they stood side by side first, and
then move on to the staged match and wrestling.
But for some reason – the grizzly started wrestling before Miller was ready.
Since Rocky caught Miller off guard, Miller instinctively hit the bear with a cane he
was holding.
This might have aroused the animal even more – it went for Miller’s neck and bit him hard,
piercing his artery.
At that point, nothing could be done to save him, and Miller died just a couple of minutes
later.
5.
Shaiunna Hare Shaiunna was a 2-year-old child, living in
Florida with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, who kept a pet Burmese python under their
roof.
One night, the man heard a noise, and he got up to find that the snake was not in its terrarium.
He then ran into Shaiunna’s room, and saw that the python had already wrapped itself
around the baby, crushing the poor girl to death.
The man started stabbing the python with a knife, but by then…it was too late and Shaiunna
died as a result of asphyxiation.
The man and woman were charged with manslaughter, and each of them was sentenced to 12 years
in prison – for manslaughter and child neglect.
Among those to testify were some snake handlers, who claimed that the couple didn’t keep the
python properly, with even simple protections.
For example, their terrarium didn’t have a proper lid, and it was located only 12 feet
from Shaiunna’s room, without a door in between.
And, according to the testimony, the snake was so underfed that it tried to eat the baby
whole.
Number 4: Joe Ramonetha Joe Ramonetha was a zookeeper from South Africa
who, due to staff shortages, came out of his retirement to assume his previous position.
He was working at a rural farm, which was breeding animals for the zoo, but one day,
something terrible happened.
Another employee of the farm had made a mistake, and one of the cage gates was inadvertently
left opened.
Although the staff on the zoo farm was well trained, and the rule was to always close
the gates through which the lions can enter before workers come near…this time, someone
failed to do so, and Joe was attacked in the staff passageway.
As Joe was preparing food for the lions, a 10-year-old lion jumped at him, aiming at
his neck.
The lion bit him hard, and all he could do was scream.
When his colleagues heard him screaming, they quickly rushed to save him and Ramonetha was
immediately taken to hospital, but by the time he got there, he had already passed on.
Number 3: Maddox Derkosh This tragedy took place at the Pittsburgh
Zoo.
The two-year-old Maddox was visiting the zoo with his parents, and their explorations eventually
brought them to the enclosed area for the African painted dogs.
Because the boy had problems with his vision, he couldn’t see the animals quite well, so,
his mother lifted him up a little bit, allowing him to see the dogs.
But, as the boy leaned more and more forward, he somehow fell down into the pit to the absolute
horror of his parents.
He was immediately attacked by 11 aggressive dogs, who attacked with such ferocity, that
it was impossible to save him, and poor Maddox bled to death in a matter of minutes.
The zoo staff and police officers arrived within minutes, and tried to rescue the boy,
managing to chase off seven dogs, but struggled with the remaining four.
One dog was especially aggressive, and an officer had to shoot him down.
The death of little Maddox was the first recorded accident of that type at an accredited zoo
in almost half a century.
Number 2: Dawn Brancheau.
Dawn Brancheau was an animal trainer at SeaWorld, who was viscously attacked and killed by an
orca in 2010.
In February of that year, Dawn was performing with Tilikum, the largest captive orca at
SeaWorld.
The performance was going well until the very end.
The final part of the routine involved Dawn lying on a submerged slide-out, next to the
orca whale.
According to other SeaWorld workers who were present that day, everything was going on
normally and there was absolutely no indication that the whale would do something unexpected.
But for some reason, the whale grabbed Dawn by her hair and dragged her underwater, breaking
several of her bones, and even ripping off her limbs.
As it turned out, this wasn’t the first fatality in which Tilikum was involved.
Prior to Dawn’s death, the whale was associated with the killing of two people, in 1991 and
1999, respectively.
The death of Dawn Brancheau awakened the national awareness about the issue of orcas in captivity,
and the danger stemming from it.
In the documentary Blackfish, filmed about the tragic event of Dawn Brancheau’s death,
it is argued that the premise of her being killed because she had a ponytail is…flimsy,
to say the least.
The film’s director claims that there could be something more behind the whole story.
Number 1: Steve Irwin Steve Irwin is a famous host of a TV show
that he hosted for several years…you probably know him better as The Crocodile Hunter!
Irwin gained the reputation of a man who’s not afraid to do anything, and he was pretty
daring in his exploits involving wild animals.
Well, in 2006, Irwin was in Australia, filming the documentary series “Ocean’s Deadliest,”
but, because of bad weather, the filming had to be stopped for a while, and Steve decided
to take some time to snorkel.
His idea was to use the footage of him snorkeling and give it to his daughter, who also had
a TV program.
Irwin was swimming in shallow waters when he came close to a stingray from behind, in
an attempt to film how it swims away.
But, unexpectedly, the stingray moved and started stabbing Irwin with its tail.
In fact, the stingray stabbed him multiple times in just a matter of seconds.
At first, Irwin thought that the stingray had merely pierced his lungs and he would
recover, but it was more serious than that.
The stingray’s tail actually pierced Irwin in the heart, causing him to bleed to death.
Although crewmembers rushed him to a local hospital, he was pronounced dead.
Tell us what you think about these crazy attacks in the comments below!
Like the video, click the subscribe button…you know what to do!
Hasta Luego!
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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