Trusting A Wild Animal - And Nearly Killed By Him

[Red Leg]

Fascinating article in the Texas Monthly about a warthog that had been raised and befriended on a Texas Hill Country ranch that decided to try his best to kill his owner.

His Best Friend Was a 250-Pound Warthog. One Day, It Decided to Kill Him.

Austin Riley spent decades raising exotic animals in the Texas Hill Country. The animal he thought he knew best changed his life forever.

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[roklok]

Great read ! Scary stuff for sure. I wonder if the female potbelly pig had anything to do with the reason for the attack. I was gored by a holstein bull years ago when I tried to separate a cow in heat from him.

 

[Doug3006]

Domesticated animals have been engineered by man to be dependent upon us. They have been altered so much that they no longer resemble or behave like their wild ancestors. However, there’s not a domestic critter you can name that hasn’t at one time or another tried to take a chunk out of, or stomp on, it’s owner. Wild animals aren’t even close to being trustworthy. I wish that young man a full recovery. As for the Warthog, it’s barbecue time!

 

[ActionBob]

Domestic animals can't be trusted either. I had a couple neighbors killed by bulls. First was a 5 year old boy went under a fence into a pasture with a Jersey bull. Tragic.

Second was a guy in his 30's. Construction worker who would go to help on his parents farm after work. Right in front of family a Holstein bull bashed him into a gate in a freestall barn. They got the bull off with pitchforks. The victim got up and said "that is going to hurt in the morning" and fell over dead.

My own mother was attacked by an Angus bull that had her down smashing her into the dirt. Us kids were in school and dad was in the field. Our old German Shepherd who had hip dysplasia came to the rescue and went all out attacking that bull and got it off her. She suffered cracked ribs. Ol Skip got steak for his supper. That bull got turned into baloney.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

As per our our textbook when we were studying "Principles of Forestry" at the University of Peshawar-
"The difference between man and the rest of the animal kingdom is the former's ability to sublimate instinct and the latter's lack thereof".

I have spent my entire life around fauna, because of my career in the forest department. You can respect an animal. You can understand an animal. But you can never really trust one.

 

[Doug Hamilton]

Domesticated animals have been engineered by man to be dependent upon us. They have been altered so much that they no longer resemble or behave like their wild ancestors. However, there’s not a domestic critter you can name that hasn’t at one time or another tried to take a chunk out of, or stomp on, it’s owner. Wild animals aren’t even close to being trustworthy. I wish that young man a full recovery. As for the Warthog, it’s barbecue time!

This is why I tell people, especially anti-hunters, that wild animals are food, not friends.

 

[Red Leg]

Most frightening moment I ever had with an animal occurred when I was around eighteen and out dove hunting. I was walking down a brushy overgrown fence line looking at a flight birds off to one side. A loud snort seemingly at my elbow startled me, and turning to look, I suddenly found myself staring up and very deeply into the eyes of a huge Charolais bull caught between me and the fence. With a couple of hundred acres of open field at my back, I dropped the gun (an 870 so no great loss ) and took off at an angle past his nose diving through the brush and over the fence. He spun but decided not to go through the fence after me. I picked up the gun when he finally wandered off.

 

[Woodcarver]

"Domestic" livestock can be quite dangerous, largely because we think of them as tame. One of my aunts was taking pictures of my BILs dad's buffalo to use as models for her sculpture. She had been warned to stay in her car, but the herd was so peaceful, she got out. Her attitude allowed the bull to walk closer, then charge. My cousin got to watch her mom get tossed about 30' when he gored her through the thigh. Fortunately, the cows circled her and kept the bull away. Fifteen or twenty minutes later, my cousin was able to drive up and pull her mom into the car & get her to the hospital.
I've had a few cases of cow tracks, but none that put me in the hospital overnight. Still have a scar on my ribs from getting tossed over a 6' alley fence by a longhorn I was doctoring. The landing hurt worse than the scrape.
Animals, even the long time domesticated like dogs, are still animals. "Trust" is always best with some awareness & and a dose of caution.

edit for the pedantic amongst us. She was gored by an American bison in Colorado, not a buffalo in some other country....

 

[Bert the Turtle]

"The difference between man and the rest of the animal kingdom is the former's ability to sublimate instinct and the latter's lack thereof".

*some people

 

[poco]

Knew a fellow whose wife raised a baby squirrel up , it attacked her one day and bit part of her finger and ear off , they killed it to test for rabies, only to find out squirrels don’t carry rabies, good rule of thumb is if it has nuts cut them off!
had a buddy whose wife got attacked by a momma cat while locked in a walk in closet
when looking at her kittens , got on her 3 or 4 times before she got out, cat put her in the hospital.

 

[Newboomer]

*some people

My dad got chased by a bull once. We had pastured our young stock at a neighbor's place for the summer. Dad was checking on them and all of a sudden here he came hellity go yip and in one jump cleared the fence with a bull about 10 feet behind him. I've been kicked off a milking stool a few times but not seriously hurt except for a milk bath and a little cowshit. Nipped by horses on occasion when harnessing or hitting a sore spot brushing them.

 

[ActionBob]

It is a well recognized fact that dairy bullls are way more dangerous than beef bulls. Recognized by real farmers and ranchers anyway. Dairy bulls, all real dairy cattle for that matter, are hand raised by humans and thus not afraid and actually accustomed to being handled by and in close proximity to humans. Add in 2000 plus pounds of pure muscle and a bit of a head toss and even a non attack can be dangerous. Throw in a pile of testosterone and and bad attitude and people get injured and killed.

I don't belive I've ever personally owned a mature bull. Well not one on any of my farms. I have had ownership in some at AI companies. The odds are we'd have had someone killed in over 40 years I've owned dairy cattle if we used bulls. We do not, we use AI exclusively.

 

[freefall]

When I was young we had a hereford bull that Dad would let us NOWHERE NEAR. Later had a red angus that would rub his head against you looking to have his ears scratched. One brother narrowly escaped a charolais bull, my older brother would've been killed by the hogs had I not been there.
I was also once nearly eat up by a St Bernard.
I don't trust ANY of them.
ps Your cat would eat you if it was big enough.

 

[mark-hunter]

My friend has a roe buck in a fence. For almost 10 years by now. Ever since the buck was fawn.
And this animal still from time to time tries to stab him, when is nervous, and it is never approachable for petting.

 

[AZDAVE]

As a young lad I was helping on my uncles farm and was helping slop his small group of pigs. One of the piglets was caught in the fence so I was in the process of getting it free and the sow came for me. I set a personal best standing high jump over a 4ft fence that day. I learned to respect animals that day. and have never trusted any since.

 

[Newboomer]

As a young lad I was helping on my uncles farm and was helping slop his small group of pigs. One of the piglets was caught in the fence so I was in the process of getting it free and the sow came for me. I set a personal best standing high jump over a 4ft fence that day. I learned to respect animals that day. and have never trusted any since.

That goes for roosters, too. We had one that would chase us little kids, jump on our backs and peck the backs of our heads. He made a mistake one day by taking after my dad. He became Sunday dinner that day.
Never trust any critter. They can and will turn on you at some point.

 

[Just Gina]

That goes for roosters, too. We had one that would chase us little kids, jump on our backs and peck the backs of our heads. He made a mistake one day by taking after my dad. He became Sunday dinner that day.
Never trust any critter. They can and will turn on you at some point.

The meanest critter I remember from my childhood, and I was raised on a farm, was a psychotic rooster! My mom’s parents were the owner of that thing. It would attack anyone, and when I was about 4 years old, if that, the stupid thing attacked me when I was walking from the car to my grandparents house. For no reason whatsoever.
My grandfather finally killed it after that.

 

[spike.t]

When I was young we had a hereford bull that Dad would let us NOWHERE NEAR. Later had a red angus that would rub his head against you looking to have his ears scratched. One brother narrowly escaped a charolais bull, my older brother would've been killed by the hogs had I not been there.
I was also once nearly eat up by a St Bernard.
I don't trust ANY of them.
ps Your cat would eat you if it was big enough.

Yup I don't trust any ....an animal is an animal domesticated or not and those can revert when something triggers them at the drop of a hat...also seen a supposed tame warthog suddenly go for someone...she managed to jump out of the way....one leg of her jeans opened up as if with a razor blade....if it had been her skin....would have been possibly deadly as would have sliced her thigh open....

 

[Doug Hamilton]

My friend has a roe buck in a fence. For almost 10 years by now. Ever since the buck was fawn.
And this animal still from time to time tries to stab him, when is nervous, and it is never approachable for petting.

When I was a young guy in California, a local.man "rescued" a blacktail fawn. It was pretty tame and he fed it in a pen, the deer grew into a spike buck. One day they found the guys body outside of the pen. He had many twin puncture wounds, and at first they thought it was some sort of ritual killing until they saw the bloody deer.

Makes you wonder about the animal rights activists and the wildlife rescuers who believe that wild animals understand and respond with gratitude to people that want to help them.

 

[Pablo]

I have a cat that will try to trip me when I'm going down the stairs. How does cat taste? Asking for a friend.