﻿Welcome back to Bad Things in History where we’re sure that none
of this stuff will ever happen to you. It’s always the other guy, right?
Right? —-----
Most people love animals. Sometimes it’s enough to just look at them.
On other occasions it might be desirable to kill and eat them.
Every so often an unwitting animal might become a cherished pet. Usually these are tame creatures,
such as cats or dogs. But some people need more excitement in their lives.
They take dangerous wild animals and try to turn them into safe and pleasant companions.
Today we are going to tell you the story of several people who were killed by animals they
owned. —-------
The Bad News Bear In 2009 Kelly Ann Walz was living in Ross
Township, Pennsylvania. She was married to Michael Walz. In 1994 Michael applied for a license to own
and sell exotic animals. As he and Kelly built their lives together, they also acquired a large
collection of dangerous beasts. He had a lion, a cougar, a jaguar,
a leopard, and two servals. Michael and Kelly also owned a 350 pound black bear.
On October 4th Kelly decided to clean the bear’s cage. Most people who handle dangerous animals
use a cage that can be partitioned. That way the animal is kept away from
humans when food is being handled. For some reason Kelly didn’t do that.
Instead she threw some dog food in the corner to distract the bear.
She then proceeded to clean the other half of the cage. The bear then decided
it didn’t care about dog food. Instead it jumped on Kelly and began mauling her.
Her children saw the attack and began yelling for help. A neighbor arrived and saw what was
happening. He shot and killed the bear. But it was too late. Kelly was already dead.
Tim Conway, who worked for the Pennsylvania Game Commission,
had the following opinion on the attack:
“Why this woman chose to go in the same area that the bear was in is beyond me.
It's a fatal mistake. These things are not tame animals, they're wild animals.”
A Frustrated Camel In 2007 Pam Weaver was a sixty year old
woman. She was living on a ranch that was a few hundred miles west of Brisbane, Australia.
Pam’s birthday was in March and her husband Noel wanted to surprise her. At first he tried to
get an alpaca or llama to give her. They were too expensive. So Noel instead acquired a camel.
Pam was thrilled to have such a strange and exotic pet. But the camel had some serious
behavioral issues. It frequently tried to lay upon goats that lived on the ranch.
The camel repeatedly tried to suffocate them. On October 8th, 2007 Pam was fixing tea in
her kitchen. The camel was wandering around the backyard acting strangely.
Pam decided to go check on it. Nobody is entirely sure what happened as
there were no witnesses. But it seemed that the camel pushed Pam to the ground and put its full
weight on top of her body. It also stomped on her face. She eventually suffocated to death.
A camel expert who reviewed the case said that he thinks the pet camel was being
sexually aggressive. Basically, the animal humped Pam to death out of frustration.
Hybrid Wolves Wolves and dogs can interbreed. Usually
this doesn’t happen in the wild. But with the help of humans, it has become a very common event.
In 2012 Sandra Piovesan was fifty years old. She was living in Salem Township, Pennsylvania.
Sandra had a large cage which was electrified. She needed it to contain the dangerous animals within.
She had eight large animals that were part wolf and part domesticated dog.
In 2010 one of the wolves attacked Sandra’s friend. The victim didn’t
want anything bad to happen to the wolves so the incident was never reported.
In the meantime Sandra took care of her wolves. She bred them too. Sandra was able
to sell the puppies for a handsome profit. On April 30th, 2012 she entered the cage just as
she had done countless times before. However, this would be Sandra’s last interaction with her hybrid
wolf pets. They attacked and killed her. Sandra’s daughter found her lying dead and
bloody in the cage later that day. The wolves had shredded her scalp and legs. There was some
speculation that maybe Pam died from other causes and the wolves only mauled her dead body.
The medical examiner said that wasn’t what happened:
There is no evidence, in my opinion, of a heart attack,
stroke, or any other condition involving a natural death
that would have rendered her unconscious or cause her to become incapacitated
Several animal experts also agreed that the hybrid wolves were to blame.
They pointed out that normally wolves are scared of humans. When wolves and dogs are bred,
their puppies are not scared of people. These hybrid creatures are more likely to attack and
kill humans than either wolves or dogs. Nobody knew which of the wolves killed Sandra.
Because of that and how dangerous the animals can be, all of them were euthanized.
Humphrey The Hippo The Hippopotamus is a
large herbivore that is usually found in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Although it doesn’t eat meat, it is an incredibly dangerous animal.
They spend a lot of time in water, mostly in rivers.
When humans get too close to a hippopotamus the result can be an extremely violent interaction.
On land the creatures have been known to stomp and kill people who get in their way.
When a hippo encounters humans in a boat, it might knock the boat over and drown the occupants.
This happened as recently as 2014 in Niger.
A group of people in a boat were attacked. Thirteen of them died.
Every year, around five hundred people die because of Hippopotamus attacks.
By most accounts they are the most dangerous mammal on the planet.
A farmer named Marius Els decided to adopt and befriend one of these wild animals.
Marius had several species of exotic animals on his farm near Klerksdorp, South Africa.
Around 2005 he became enthralled with an eight month old Hippopotamus named Humphrey.
Marius constructed a special lake for the growing herbivore. Then he purchased
Humphrey and brought him to the farm. Marius Els said Humphrey was like a son
to him. He would ride the Hippo like it was a horse and would play with him too.
At one point Marius said of his pet Hippo, “There's a relationship between me and
Humphrey and that's what some people don't understand.”
Marius was quite correct that nobody else understood his relationship with Humphrey.
By the time he was six years old, Humphrey weighed over eight hundred pounds.
In March 2011 a 52 year old man and his grandson were traveling down the river in a canoe.
As they passed by the farm, Humphrey jumped in the water and approached the pair.
They quickly escaped and climbed up a tree. They screamed for help while
Humphrey sat on the ground watching them. Marius finally appeared. He lured Humphrey away
with an apple. Then he explained to the terrified canoeists that Humphrey didn’t want to kill them,
he was just a hungry Hippo. He later said about Humphrey,
It's a little bit dangerous, but I trust him with my heart that he will not harm anybody
Humphrey didn’t just limit his encounters to boats on the river.
He also broke out of his enclosure several times. The giant Hippo would wander
onto the nearby golf course. Then he would charge at people who were playing.
On November 12th, 2011 Marius Els' body was found in the river that ran alongside his property.
It appeared that Humphrey bit Marius repeatedly, destroying the man’s body.
Then he made sure to finish the job by pushing Marius beneath the water and keeping him there
for an undetermined amount of time. Apparently the neighbors tried many times to
warn Marius that his favorite pet was a bad idea. One of them said to a reporter,
We tried to warn him, but he wouldn't listen.
This Little Piggy Technically this story isn’t about
pets. But it’s close enough that we decided to include it anyway.
Terry Vance Garner owned a ranch near Riverton, Oregon. He also raised pigs on his ranch.
In 2012 Terry was sixty-nine years old. He would never see his 70th birthday.
On the morning of September 26th Terry went to feed his pigs. He probably
didn’t intend to become the main course. After some time a family member noticed that
Terry hadn’t returned. He went to the pig pen to see what happened. Instead of finding Terry, he
found the man’s dentures and few scattered remains.
The pigs ate Terry. So little remained of him that a cause of death couldn’t be determined.
The medical examiner said that it was possible Terry had a heart attack or other medical problem,
then fell into the enclosure. Of course, it’s also possible the pigs knocked him down then
began eating him while he was still alive. Terry’s brother thought the pigs probably killed
him on purpose. He said that in 2011 Terry accidentally stepped on a piglet. The mother of
that baby pig bit Terry. Terry said he was going to kill it, but he never followed through.
Most farmers will take their pigs to be slaughtered when they reach around
three hundred pounds. Terry’s pigs weighed over six hundred pounds. His refusal to slaughter the
pigs likely contributed to his own demise. It is also worth note that we have no idea what
happened to the pigs that ate Terry. Were they slaughtered and sold to people for food? We simply
don’t know. —---------
Are the people who keep exotic animals as pets ridiculously brave? Or are they perhaps actively
seeking to meet a painful and horrible end? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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Thank you for watching Bad Things In History. —--------