12 harrowing tales of wild animal attacks

On Feb. 16, 2009, a loveable chimpanzee named Travis — who had starred in Old Navy commercials — went on a brutal rampage and ripped a Connecticut woman's face off. Such stories of wild animals attacking humans aren't terribly uncommon, though — and in many cases, the animals involved in these incidents end up being put to death. Here are 12 cases of humans befriending wild animals, with wildly alarming consequences.
Carl Wiser loved buffalo. He raised them for years on his Tennessee farm. At the peak he had a herd of about 60 buffalo, but by August 2010 the 64-year-old had just four left — and he was planning to get rid of them.
On Aug. 9, something went horribly awry. Wiser was talking on the phone when he noticed one of his buffalo chasing his horses. When he tried to separate the animals, the buffalo attacked him. His wife heard him screaming and calling her name. She found him semi-conscious with the buffalo standing over him. He later died at the hospital.
On Feb. 16, 2009, Sandra Herold's pet chimpanzee Travis brutally attacked Charla Nash, a woman he knew well. The 200-pound, 14-year-old chimp had been acting "rambunctious" that day, so Herold had given him a dose of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. As he relentlessly mauled her friend, Herold stabbed him with a chef's knife. Police ultimately shot the animal, and he died in his room in Herold's home in Stamford, Conn. About 15 months after her pet chimp attacked, Herold died alone and friendless of an aortic aneurysm in her Connecticut home at age 72.

http://www.today.com/id/38983157/ns/today-today_pets/t/harrowing-tales-wild-animal-attacks/#.U26n7BYo6Hs

Pit bull kills owner's 4-year-old daughter

Wednesday, March 26, 2014
HOUMA, La. (AP) - March 26, 2014 (WPVI) --  Police say a pit bull fatally attacked a 4-year-old girl who was watching television in a southern Louisiana apartment and injured the girl's mother when the woman pulled her daughter away.
Houma Police Chief Todd Duplantis says that 27-year-old Megan Touchet barricaded herself and her daughter, Mia Derouen, into a bedroom Tuesday evening and called 911. He says she handed her child out a second-floor apartment window to a rescue worker on a balcony.
He said Wednesday that officers shot and killed the dog, which was still being aggressive.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/national_world&id=9480736

Zimbabwe Man Punches Vicious Crocodile to Save His Son

Friday, December 27, 2013
Associated Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - December 27, 2013 (WPVI) --  State media in Zimbabwe says a villager fought a crocodile with his bare hands to free his son from its jaws in northeastern rural Mutoko.

The Herald newspaper reported Tafadzwa Kachere and his 11-year-old son Tapiwa were trying to cross a river on Christmas eve when the crocodile attacked the boy. It reported that Kachere jumped onto the crocodile's back and tried to force open its jaws, beating at its head with his fists and poking at its eyes with reeds.
The crocodile released the child and turned on Kachere who wrestled free of its grasp. The newspaper says the child lost a leg and his father's arm was severely gored. Both survived.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/national_world&id=9373648

Hungry Bear Mauls FL Woman in Her Driveway, 5 Bears Put Down

LAKE MARY, Fla. (AP) - April 14, 2014 (WPVI) --  After a bear mauled a woman in the driveway of her suburban Florida home, dragging her four feet before she escaped, wildlife officials said Monday that they had killed five of the animals, who had become dangerously accustomed to humans.
It was unclear whether the bear that attacked Terri Frana, 45, on Saturday was one of those killed. DNA and other tests will be done on the five animals - one shot and four euthanized - in an attempt to determine that, officials said. .
Frana, 45, said the bear had her head in its mouth and dragged her about 4 feet toward a wooded area.
"She opened her jaw and clamped down onto my head, and I could just hear her teeth marks," Frana told WFTV-TV (http://bit.ly/1gpJnn7 ).
She managed to escape from the bear's jaw, and then ran inside the house, where she collapsed.

...

In December, a woman was attacked by bears while walking her dogs in Longwood, about five miles from Lake Mary. She suffered facial injuries and was hospitalized.  

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/national_world&id=9503903

Man observing alligator in Fla. bitten by snake

Associated Press

Posted on April 12, 2014 at 10:04 PM

Updated Saturday, Apr 12 at 10:06 PM

A man who stepped out of his car in Alligator Alley to view one of the deadly reptiles was bitten by a poisonous snake.
Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles said the 29-year-old man from Boynton Beach was bitten on the foot by a water moccasin Saturday evening after he and his girlfriend made a stop to check out an alligator at mile marker 49 on I-75 eastbound. The highway is also known as Alligator Alley.

http://www.wfaa.com/news/national/255050131.html

Costa Rica crocodiles tore man apart

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Lidieth Rojas was walking on the beach near Costa Rica’s Tarcoles River Thursday morning when something that washed ashore in front of her gave her chills.
She thought it could have been a coconut — it was about the right size — but there was something unmistakably human about it. It would take a police investigation and DNA tests to confirm her fears. The mystery object was a human head.
Specifically, it was the head of Omar de Jesus Jiron, a 32-year-old Nicaraguan who two days earlier was viciously ripped apart by the river’s sizeable bask of crocodiles. Despite multiple boat searches by the Red Cross, no other body parts were recovered.

...According to police reports, Jiron and a co-worker were traveling by bus after losing their jobs in construction. The pair had been drinking heavily and was kicked off the bus near the Tarcoles bridge. After reaching the end of the bridge, a heavily intoxicated Jiron decided to take a dip in the river.
What happened next is still a mystery. Some witnesses say Jiron leaped off the top of the bridge, while others say he walked down the side of the bank and stripped off his clothes before lowering himself into the water. By all accounts, Jiron was only able to enjoy several seconds of his swim before he was pulled under the water by at least six crocodiles. Some witnesses say as many as 20 crocs eventually circled Jiron.
Red Cross officials arrived in a boat at the scene shortly after Jiron was attacked, but were unable to pull the man from the reptiles’ jaws.

...
According to a study by Costa Rica’s National University, Jiron’s death is the only reported crocodile fatality at the bridge since 1999. According to the Worldwide Crocodilian Attack Database kept by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, there have been at least 34 crocodile attacks in Costa Rica since 1995. 

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/costa-rica/140502/crocodile-eats-nicaraguan-man-tarcoles

 

Female Exec Atacked by Shark in Hawaii During Morning Swim

For 34-year-old Julie Given-Glance, Nov. 17 started out as just another day in paradise.
The San Diego credit union executive was vacationing with her family on the Hawaiian island of Maui, when she set out that morning for what she thought would be a 20-minute swim. Instead, just 100 yards off the shore of Kaanapali Beach, she swam into the path of a shark.
"I was swimming along when my right shoulder got slammed by something big," Given-Glance told Good Morning America. "I felt the bite, was released almost immediately, and turned to see a six- to eight-foot shark right in front of my eyes."
With the help of a boogie boarder who was about 20 yards away and her own determination, Given-Glance managed to get to shore.
Feeling Like Bait
Right after the bite, the pain wasn't that intense, but Given-Glance was shocked and "scared out of my wits," she said. The shark bit into her right shoulder, chewed her forearm, and nearly severed her wrist, before swimming away.
Given-Glance feared her blood would attract a feeding frenzy of other sharks, and that she had basically become "bait."
But instead of panicking, the amateur triathlete grabbed her injured arm with the other arm, rolled onto her back and began using her legs to swim. As she swam to shore, horrified beachgoers heard her screaming, and one woman dialed 911.
"There's a gal … in front of the Maui Kai and the Embassy Suites, she's bleeding profusely," the woman said. "She's been attacked by a shark or something."
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125561