Jessica the tame hippopotamus would never intentionally hurt a person, a man who was reportedly attacked by the animal said on Tuesday.
"I worked with her for two years, she knows me and I did the tours with the people," Stephen Jansen van Rensburg said.
"There is no way that she will hurt anybody intentionally, maybe by accident, I mean look at my hand but never intentionally. Wish these people will stop sensationalising it."
Jansen van Rensburg said a report in the Beeld newspaper on Tuesday was sensationalising the incident that happened on Saturday when he put his hand in the 14-year-old hippopotamus's mouth.
Beeld reported that paramedics on the scene said Jansen van Rensburg was swimming with his girlfriend and friends when Jessica made a dash for them. His hand was bitten while he wrestled with Jessica and tried to stop her.Paramedic Pieter Papdorf was quoted as saying Jessica's owners were more worried about the traumatised Jessica than the bleeding Jansen van Rensburg and took her to a quiet place where they massaged her to calm her down.
"He bled a lot. His left thumb was hanging on skin. The muscle was torn and the rest of his hand was badly injured," he was quoted as saying.
However, Jansen van Rensburg said it looked worse than it was. He said he put his hand in Jessica's mouth and she closed her mouth and a small tusk pierced the webbed part of his left hand between his thumb and index finger.
"My thumb is definitely not hanging. A small piece of skin is the only thing that is missing, it is not that serious at all. It looked way more serious," he said.
TameHe said even the doctor at the hospital was surprised that he was transported to hospital with a helicopter.
Jessica's owner Tonie Joubert said the report was "a lot of nonsense" and not true.
Owner of SanWild-conservation area Louise Joubert told the Beeld that she spoke to Tonie Joubert and warned him that it was dangerous to have a hippopotamus.
"A tame hippopotamus is more dangerous than a wild one because it has no fear of humans. Jessica turns into a murder weapon and it's the owner's fault," she was quoted as saying.
Neighbour Mario van Rooyen was quoted as saying that he was scared for his children because this was the second time in four weeks that Jessica attacked someone.However, Joubert said the reports were not true and the emergency services guy "dramatised everything".
"It is a lot of nonsense, Jessica is world-famous and 14 years old. The reports are not true," he said.
Joubert raised Jessica after finding her at a few hours old on the banks of the Blyde River with her umbilical cord still attached.
Jessica now lives with the Joubert family near Hoedspruit in Limpopo.
Jessica, who turned 14 in March, is one of the country's most renowned tame animals. She weighs over 1 400kg, and is a movie star with her own fan club and web page.
Source: South African Press Association
Hippos, Jabberwocks & Penance. Hmm..
What pends? What rends? We'll see, I guess; we will see. (It sure feels ever closer.)
These events seem akin to animals' undeniable pre earthquake/disaster sense, which even 'official science' is now forced to recognize.*
Two hippo bites in a week? [I once read that no one had ever survived a Hippo Bite? or Hippo attack? Do we here have a first?] What do they- critters- know that we don't?** (I guess that it's not long until, here in Florida, we suffer our first Manatee attack - as far as I'm aware.)
And then, who knows what transdimensional critters we'll find ourselves up against? Perhaps even, Dare I say it? The Terror of the Jabberwock?
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son;
The jaws that bite; the claws that catch.
Beware the Jub Jub bird and shun,
The frumious bandersnatch!"
Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky
I claim that it's painfully obvious that it makes more sense to prepare for such Jabberwock attacks than to spend YOUR tax dollars on
(1) wars against poor folks who happen to sit over oil, or other commodities. (E.g., Middle East, Iran, Africa.)
(As Joseph Conrad - who was, like Twain, FAR ahead of his time - stated:
"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much."
- Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness,)
or,
(2) wars against drugs, terror, and even poverty***, as each are impossible per their own definition, and ALWAYS end up with more government (particularly executive branch power), and ALWAYS end up with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer in the name of some supposed higher ideal.
R.C.
* As I recall reading, regarding the Boxing? Day Tsunami (12/24/04?), that despite the very, very many elelphants thereabouts (Asian, presumably), not a single one died. They had the good sense to head for the high hills.
** A hell of a lot, I dare say.
*** Just as it's clear the "War on Drugs" was started as a distraction from Watergate - and its LBJ/Nixon/Bush connections to Kennedy 11/22/63, I ask was LBJ's "War on Poverty" a similar distraction? Or some self-fooling attempt at penance?
RC