Friday, August 31, 2012

Hippo In Pool? Sad Ending

So, the hippo in the pool story was pretty cute: 

The young hippopotamus plopped into the pool on Tuesday at the Monate Conservation Lodge north of Johannesburg. The pool is big enough for the hippo to swim but it's eight feet deep with no steps and "there's no way he can come out," lodge manager Ruby Ferreira told The Associated Press on Thursday.

A game capture team will sedate the hippo and lift it out of the pool with a crane, said MuIsabel Wentzel of South Africa's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Much of the water has already been drained to make the extraction easier. A veterinarian will be present during operation hippo extraction on Friday.

Except, the poor guy didn't make it:

...a game capture team had been waiting since Thursday for a veterinarian to show up to tranquilize Solly and oversee the operation to hoist him out with a crane.

By early Friday, the hippo was showing signs of stress and was no longer able to stand in the pool, which had been drained of most of its water in preparation for the rescue.

Lying in the murky, feces-strewn water, he emerged occasionally for air, sighing anxiously as he gazed at journalists gathering around the pool.

“He was not as perky this morning, more agitated, like he was irritated. I think because he wanted to get out of the pool,” Ferreira told South Africa Press Association. “We’ve been waiting for the vets and I think they were just a bit too late.”

 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why didn't someone shoot him? Ridiculous to let him suffer.