# Pet Hippo mauls owner to death



## Sezzzzzzzzz (Nov 15, 2011)

Im sure i read about this guy in a thread on here the other day....

Pet hippo mauls owner to death - The West Australian


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## Morgwynn (Nov 15, 2011)

A "pet" hippo is just a disaster waiting to happen, they are the most dangerous animal in Africa for a reason.
A wild animal can never truly be a "pet".


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## Reptile_Maniac (Nov 15, 2011)

Absolutely terrifying! Sometimes the most tamed, calm animal can turn vicious!!! Poor guy, never saw it coming ...


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## Snake_Whisperer (Nov 15, 2011)

I'm pretty sure "pet" and "hippo" were never meant to go together. Much like the "Grizzly Man", odds are just not in your favour. RIP crazy dude.


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## SteveNT (Nov 15, 2011)

Derrrrrrrr!


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## dihsmaj (Nov 15, 2011)

Morgwynn said:


> A "pet" hippo is just a disaster waiting to happen, they are the most dangerous animal in Africa for a reason.
> A wild animal can never truly be a "pet".


Herps are wild, not domesticated... they're pets...


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## pythrulz (Nov 15, 2011)

There are more people that die In africa from hippo attcks than any other wild animal so no one should have one as a pet there big heavy and have a huge mouth of big teeth


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## notechistiger (Nov 15, 2011)

After watching that man with his "pet" crocodile, still friendly after many many years, I say never say never! =D


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## Jay84 (Nov 15, 2011)

In the video he looks pretty scared of it! He is clearly trying to stay away from his 'loving pets' mouth!


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## KaotikJezta (Nov 15, 2011)

I agree Jay, he doesn't look like he has it the least bit tamed or has any kind of relationship with it and the story says it had already chased him and his 7 year old grandson up a tree and killed calf and escaped and chased golfers, what the hell was he thinking.


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## Darlyn (Nov 15, 2011)

Pffft!
Seems to me this poor hippo is just misunderstood.
What happens to him now?
They can send him to me, he can live in my spa on the balcony : )


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## GSXR_Boy (Nov 15, 2011)

Hungry, hungry hippo


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## AUSHERP (Nov 15, 2011)

oh well, at least he died with his mate. better than cancer hey......


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## krefft (Nov 15, 2011)

This has put the hippo keepers lobby back years. 
My thoughts go out to all the dedicated keepers, and hippo's who have yet another obstacle to overcome


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## grannieannie (Nov 15, 2011)

I couldn't get that West article to download, but was it about a couple who had raised a baby hippo who'd been orphaned. I saw a doco on tv about them...they had no human children and treated this animal as a child, swiming with it...it was really a bit weird.....did it kill the husband ???? Or is that another case....


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## longqi (Nov 15, 2011)

Not the same case


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## FAY (Nov 15, 2011)

I think it depends whether you befriend a female hippo or a male hippo. Male hippo's are very,very territorial.


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## longqi (Nov 15, 2011)

We used to fish the Zambesi for Tigerfish when I was a kid
Natives were terrified of hippos so dad made a big wide thing more like a barge than a boat

I think from underwater a canoe looks like a croc and hippos dont like crocs
Saw several heavy dugouts that had been bitten in two


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## Mo Deville (Nov 16, 2011)

hippos, tigers, bears, scrub python, taipans or dogs or anything for that matter, the people that decide to take on the task of keeping these animals im sure understand the possible outcomes of keeping animals that can overpower or kill, and if they don't understand then they soon will. RIP hippo man...


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## Pufferfish (Nov 16, 2011)

I can't understand people who say he shouldn't have a hippo, pureliy because it is a hippo and they have killed a fair few people in the past, 
That is a horrible argument.


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## KaotikJezta (Nov 16, 2011)

Pufferfish, I think it is more of a case of him totally kidding himself with about the hippos nature and danger it had already actually been shown to pose rather than just because it is a hippo. It had already attacked animals and chased people, him included.


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## Snake_Whisperer (Nov 16, 2011)

Pufferfish said:


> I can't understand people who say he shouldn't have a hippo, pureliy because it is a hippo and they have killed a fair few people in the past,
> That is a horrible argument.



No one said he "shouldn't" have one, what most, including myself have been saying is, is that is it is a bit stupid to keep an animal as a pet that has the distinction of being Africa's most prolific killer among the large land animals. Even more so that he appears to be trying to keep it like you would a dog. If you want one, I know of one that has just become available. Shipping will be a bit pricey though and I'm not sure if AAE ships out of South Africa.

... Hang on, did I just get punk'd?


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## PilbaraPythons (Nov 16, 2011)

At $17 a kg, imagine the bill


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## smeejason (Nov 16, 2011)

Has anyone watched Fatal attractions on foxtel. 
Search Results : Fatal, Attractions : Animal Planet
A far few are episodes are on the 'crazy' people that keep ven's but in all fairness to the producers one of them thought she had trained gaboon vipers and rattle snakes to be friendly and wander the house.. 
Some people keep some crazy animals as pets one guy had a full grown tiger in a apartment in harlem, but before that he had 3 tigers and 3 lions but that was a bit much apparently...


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## Poggle (Nov 16, 2011)

In all fairness it was a bit silly swimming with something like that, but a shame that he had not seen it clearer also.


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## Chris1 (Nov 16, 2011)

lol, this has to be the modern day version of survival of the fittest,..i swear people just keep on getting stupider,....


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## moosenoose (Nov 16, 2011)

Darlyn said:


> Pffft!
> Seems to me this poor hippo is just misunderstood.
> What happens to him now?



4 cool looking umbrella stands for a start?   ...maybe a couple of coat holders and a rug?


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## Cockney_Red (Nov 16, 2011)

You, do! have to despair of some people....Like the Hollywood bear, the other night on Animal Planet...gruesome and very sad....RIP river horse man


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## mmafan555 (Nov 18, 2011)

Morgwynn said:


> A "pet" hippo is just a disaster waiting to happen, they are the most dangerous animal in Africa for a reason.
> A wild animal can never truly be a "pet".



They aren't the most dangerous animal in Africa......If you are basing it on human deaths per year...Insects absolutely trounce them....snakes vastly beat them and I remember reading that cent data shows that Lions and Elephants actullay kill more people as-well( I remember reading a report on it with statistics for deaths per year).. But they are still very territorial animals that can be quite dangerous...Not good pets at all.

This was only a 6 year old sub-adult hippo...A full grown Male hippo is around 2 tons-2.2 tons...Not to many things are more dangerous than a full grown male hippo...1 bite and you are finished.



Snake_Whisperer said:


> I'm pretty sure "pet" and "hippo" were never meant to go together. Much like the "Grizzly Man", odds are just not in your favour. RIP crazy dude.




The Grizzly man survived for 13 seasons ALONE( including at night-time etc) deep in Alaskan Bear country before he was killed by a rogue old bear that he had never seen before...Not saying we should all keep bears as pets...but they aren't as dangerous to humans as say big cats etc..You can coexist with bears fairly peacefully provided you lock up your food and take all the necessary precautions...Can't really say the same thing for some types of snakes and big cats.

People can get up really close to Bears in Katmai National Park/McNeil River Sanctuary on foot....and bears will just ignore you...I think it has to be credited to their intelligence and the fact that food is pretty abundant...They are huge and powerful but not that hard to coexist with when compared to other animals..



pythrulz said:


> There are more people that die In africa from hippo attcks than any other wild animal so no one should have one as a pet there big heavy and have a huge mouth of big teeth



Insects, Snakes, and maybe Lions/Elephants kill more people each year than Hippos...Crocs may kill more people possibly aswell.

But yes Hippos are rather uneasy and aggressive animals.



grannieannie said:


> I couldn't get that West article to download, but was it about a couple who had raised a baby hippo who'd been orphaned. I saw a doco on tv about them...they had no human children and treated this animal as a child, swiming with it...it was really a bit weird.....did it kill the husband ???? Or is that another case....




I think that was a different case...Involving a female hippo that was raised by a family..This case involved a sub-adult male hippo.


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